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TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


THE STOUT OP i FLYING BOAT 



BY 

ALYAH MILTON KERR 

Author o t “Young Heroes of Wire and Rail” 



ILLUSTRATED BY G. W. PICKNELL 

t 



BOSTON 

LEE AND SHEPARD 
1904 


Published August, 1904 


■rz=3*<zz:- •■■■ *■ f,m 

LiBB**?V of 0OMGRFS5 

Tvn> oooies RwiMved 

AUG 26 1904 

Onnyrteto Ent*v 

!Z ' 1 1 o* 

OLAS9 «- XXo. No. 

Z 1 ! + 8 
copy b 

Itfl C M —i. . i i. 



Copyright, 1904, by Lee and Shepard 


t « , 

All rights rested 
t ^ * « € 

Two Young Inventors 


IRorwoob press 
Berwick and Smith Co. 
Norwood, Maes. 

U. S. A. 


CONTENTS 


£ 

'<arfc> 

£ 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Cyclone 1 

II. After the Storm ...... 20 

III. Going oyer the Ground ..... 32 

IY. An Important Capture 53 

Y. Bringing Home the Prize 75 

YI. Some Odd Intentions 95 

VII. Mr. Joseph Pinkson 108 

VIII. Mr. Pinkson’s Exploit 121 

IX. The Traveling Salesman’s Story . . . 146 

X. The Hero of Beaver Head . . . .171 

XI. The Young Deserter 216 

XII. Thad Mandon Finds Himself .... 238 

i XIII. Abroad on the Lake 249 

XIY. The “New Marvel’s" Fate .... 276 

XY. In the Forest Fire 290 


v 











ILLUSTRATIONS 


Page 


The next moment the New Marvel leaped up- 
ward ( Frontispiece ) 

He seemed trying to remember who he was . . 

“ Hit him ! ” gasped Dannie, “ hit him ! ” . . . 

They ran over a half dozen hogs . . . and 

the winged wagon went wild 

He had leaped headlong at the man’s flying 

heels 

The oddest thing was the boat . . . doing 

its best at pushing freight-cars on dry land ! . 


284 
24 ' 
72 ' 

106 

138 ' 

306 


















































< 








•s 







TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


CHAPTEK I 

THE CYCLONE 

That which befell Uncle Nathan Harp and his 
nephew, Dannie, together with the manner of Thad 
Mandon’s arrival, had the look of a miracle. To 
this day it is talked of on the wide reaches of Camass 
Prairie. 

To voyage in a balloon is a performance offering 
quite wonder enough, but to go up in a cyclone and 
return to earth with a sound constitution and im- 
proved morals, as was the case, at least, with Uncle 
Nathan and Dannie, sets one to thinking of the 
supernatural. However, as is well known, most 
odd and puzzling things are performed by cyclones, 
and doubtless that which occurred on Camass Prairie 
was as natural as cabbage, though happily less fre- 
quent as a phenomenon. 

To Dannie Dool the scenes of that day are as 
mountains mirrored in water. Touched with that 


2 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


strangeness which is the chief flavor of dreams, to 
him the main event had that more than waking 
reality which sometimes colors the fancied visions of 
sleep. No spectacle of his later years quite matched 
the merciless magnificence of that day of storm. 
The wrath and passion of the elements ! With what 
sublimity of beauty and power they wrought, and 
how curiously they laid their influence on days and 
events that were to come! 

Nathan Harp was a pushing, austere man. His 
life was made up of a toil so intense it amounted 
to something very like a perpetual rage. Land was 
that which Uncle Nathan craved; not money in the 
hank so much as wide reaches of soil upon which 
wheat and oats might billow their golden waves, and 
pastures in which fat cattle might feed when the 
hours were cool, or wade knee-deep in shaded streams 
when the noons were hot. So intent was the man 
on extending the scope of his dominion, he seemed 
always in a frenzy about it. He spent his strength 
freely to increase his acres, and he was equally 
liberal in spending the strength of others in 
the same cause — if they would let him. He had 
gone out of Wisconsin into Minnesota, where wheat 
land was abundant, and had pushed and toiled, add- 


THE CYCLONE 


3 


ing eighty to eighty, and eighty to eighty, until he 
owned two solid square sections at the heart of 
Camass Prairie. Here Dannie Dool found him. 

Dannie Dool, “ taken to raise ” by his Uncle 
Nathan and Aunt Sarah, wasJwelve years old when 
he came to the Prairie. To mold this narrative 
after the usual fashion, he should have come from 
New England, but the fact was not so. He came 
from Joaquin Miller’s country — the shores of the 
“ sun-down sea.” His father, John Dool, had 
wedded Nathan Harp’s sister in Wisconsin, and the 
twain, with distaste for winter frosts and a mutual 
love of flowers and sunny things, had gone to Cali- 
fornia. Dannie came into life there, not far from 
San Jose, in a valley full of roses. 

There were other things in the valley, — peaches 
and oranges and prunes and nectarines and olives 
and grapes and blossoms of many sorts, — but the 
roses were so many they seemed to make roses of all 
the rest. There were mountains not far away, green 
in winter and brown in summer, and an ocean of 
water that went blue and sun-lit off to Japan and 
other fragrant places. Therefore Dannie was not 
used to things that were bitter and hard. 

Had not death done its cold deed in John Dool’s 


4 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


cottage, leaving Dannie without parents, he might 
have remained a long time in the hollow of roses. 
As it was, the flowery valley fell dark, and Dannie, 
at his Uncle Nathan’s bidding, came over the moun- 
tains and down into the lap of the continent, where 
there was no sea, save the land itself. 

To Dannie, the memory of that journey is as an 
endless river, flowing across valleys and up moun- 
tains and down them and across gray deserts and 
vast plains, with men and depots and towns and 
passing trains rushing rearward in the flowing 
stream. He remembers that it was cold much of 
the way, and that by times the car windows were 
frosted and he peered out at such a white ghostli- 
ness of things as was never seen about the rose 
hollow. 

Then, after a long time, he was riding down a hill 
in a sleigh with Uncle Nathan, and saw before him 
a green house with green shutters, and a big barn 
and three smaller ones, and the house and the barns 
seemed floating in a white ocean, for the whole land 
was spotless with snow. Then he was in a warm 
kitchen, and a stout woman was u mothering ” him, 
and an old dog, that the woman called Flaps, was 
licking his numbed fingers, and life did not seem 


THE CYCLONE 


5 


quite so bad. But for days he was dizzy from that 
blinding ocean of snow and the dip and stagger that 
the cars had put into him on his long journey. He 
remembers, too, that there was no happy clattering 
of children in the big, barn-like house, and that more 
than once in those early days he wept with home- 
sickness. 

Old Flaps was very sympathetic in such hours. 
The dog’s big eyes were slightly dimmed with age, 
but he could see clearly enough what the trouble 
was — Dannie needed love and companionship; so 
Flaps loved and entertained him and got himself 
loved in return, and this mutual adoration wrought 
itself into the Camass Prairie miracle. 

Uncle Hathan grumbled, by times, through four 
years before he gave the final order to make an end 
of Flaps. To Dannie the four years group them- 
selves in a memory of school in a little red building 
among trees on a hill during cold weather, with Flaps 
and chores in and about the three barns, and in 
spring time larks singing in meadows and plows turn- 
ing glossy furrows in damp fields, and in hot weather 
hired men and hay and wheat and cattle and endless 
labor, with Uncle Ha than always in a fuming hurry 
and Flaps hobbling about but still a good friend; 


6 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


then the awful edict that Flaps must die, spoken 
roughly out of Uncle Nathan’s grizzled beard. 

Dannie protested with a vehemence fitting the 
outrage and pleaded with the abandon of fervid love, 
but to no effect. Uncle Nathan pronounced Flaps 
a profitless nuisance, an incumberer of space and a 
consumer of valuable food. An aged dog’s proper 
doom, he contended, was burial; such procedure 
saved expense and trouble. Uncle Nathan was prac- 
tical, you see, near to savagery. He pronounced 
Dannie’s sentiment mawkishly foolish, and Aunt 
Sarah’s encouragement of the boy’s appeals for 
mercy as the clacking of a simpleton. Uncle Nathan 
could be severe, especially during haying or in har- 
vest time. 

“ To be sure, Flaps don’t do much but eat and lie 
on the porch nowadays,” said Aunt Sarah, “ but you 
ought to think what he’s been and let him live out 
his natural life, Pa.” 

u He has,” asserted Uncle Nathan; “ his natural 
usefulness is ended and that’s the end of his natural 
life. It would be unnatural for him to live any 
longer and I naturally don’t propose that he shall.” 

This savage though defective argument crushed 
Aunt Sarah into silence, but not Dannie. The words 


THE CYCLONE 


7 


were like sharp claws that set themselves into the 
boy’s heart and tore it. 

“ You shall not kill him! ” he cried. “ I’ll run 
away with him! You shall not! You shall not! ” 

They were at breakfast, and Uncle Nathan 
stopped eating and glared at the young rebel a mo- 
ment. “ You put a rope ’round that old dog’s neck 
after breakfast and bring him back in the wind-break 
behind the barn. I’ll take the rifle with me,” was 
all he said, but it was grim and terrible enough. 

Dannie slipped out and was leading Flaps away 
when Uncle Nathan emerged from the door with the 
rifle resting in the hollow of his arm. The boy 
hugged the old dog against his side and looked at the 
man with horrified eyes. The dog bristled his spine 
and growled in terror. With that sight or sense 
which is not given to humanity, he saw the will that 
was in the man. 

“ Take him back to the wind-break,” said Uncle 
Nathan. 

Dannie obeyed, but he did not stop in the grove 
of soft maples back of the barn. He hurried down a 
little hollow and got behind a hedge fence, and fol- 
lowing that across forty acres of ground, disappeared 
beyond a low hill. In a thick grove of trees that 


8 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


lined the edge of a small lake, nearly a mile from 
the dwelling, he hid Flaps, tying him by a little 
spring of water that oozed from among the roots. 
Uncle Nathan did not follow. Luckily a neighbor, 
bent on borrowing some sort of tool, entered the 
gate at the moment of Dannie’s going, and diverted 
Uncle Nathan’s wrath, for Uncle Nathan, being ex- 
ceeding thrifty, hated people who borrowed things. 

It took time and was therefore a nuisance. Be- 
sides, it was harvest time, and Uncle Nathan, in 
such periods, moved in a fury of haste. Four hired 
men came round from the kitchen, wiping their 
mouths on their sleeves, all ready for work. Uncle 
Nathan gruffly told the neighbor to go to the tool- 
house and help himself, threw the rifle on the porch, 
and led the way to the fields, forgetful of Dannie 
and the dog. 

At the noon meal the matter presented itself to 
his mind again, and he ceased eating long enough 
to look severely at Dannie for a moment. “ I sup- 
pose that dog is waiting for me back in the wind- 
break?” he asked. 

“ He’s in the grove,” replied Dannie evasively. 

“ Well, I’ll ’tend to him soon as I get through 
eating,” said Uncle Nathan, beginning to munch his 


THE CYCLONE 


9 


food rapidly. But Dannie finished first, and slipping 
out, snatched the rifle from the porch and hid it 
under the barn, then himself disappeared. When 
Uncle Nathan appeared he found, as for Dannie and 
Flaps, a seemingly universal void. His anger was 
something to see, but the fields were ripe and the 
harvesters waiting, and he deferred the matter until 
evening, promising a very harsh settlement of the 
case. 

However, grave and large things may happen in 
an afternoon, and Uncle Nathan had not reckoned 
with all that lay between himself and the life of old 
Flaps. In the peril that hangs forever above life, 
waiting to effect necessary and inevitable change, 
man can boast no greater safety than the dog. 

The sun stood midway between noon and night 
when the disaster fell. The great Prairie lay sim- 
mering in heat, like a stagnant tropic sea. Curled 
gleamings throbbed over the still fields of wheat, and 
the field of ripe oats, around the edge of which two 
self-binders went tittering in a cloud of dust, lay 
like a burning, yellow lake. The horses dragging 
the heavy machines dripped perspiration, and 
the faces of the sheaf-gatherers were like scarlet. 
Overhead a faint film of steam lay motionless along 


10 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


the sky, through which the sun burned scorching and 
intolerable. A vague, blue-gray zone of vapor 
ringed the horizon and slowly seemed to tighten on 
the world like a contracting band of hot iron. The 
men wrung the sweat from their foreheads or dashed 
the salt rills from their eyes, as they passed with 
forced steps from sheaf to sheaf; the horses stopped 
unbidden at every round, their nostrils distended and 
red, their flanks quaking; man and beast alike panted 
in the still and stifling air. 

Dannie was shocking sheaves along the border of 
the field, with every drop of his play-loving blood 
protesting. Almost momentarily he looked out upon 
the vast landscape, hungering for release as one 
might from a pit of infinite discomfort. He glanced 
by times toward the distant grove where old Flaps 
lay hid, longing to creep into the shade beside him 
and give him food, but there was Uncle Nathan’ s 
bearded face among the men — a burned, sweat- 
streaked visage, angry, insistent, forceful. 

As the sun fell toward the west a huge tower of 
cloud pushed its bronzed head slowly up from the 
horizon. The tower of cloud, bastioned with brassy 
rolls of fleece, hung faintly wavering, then settled a 
little and remained unmoved through all the aerial 


THE CYCLONE 


11 


havoc that followed. A shadow like a film of smoke 
fled across the breathless world, but the men labored 
on, throwing a hurried look now and then toward the 
silent cloud. Would it rain? Cheering thought! 
The reeking horses ' answered afresh to Uncle 
Nathan’s rancorous yells. His voice came across the 
fields like a snarl from a throat of tin. 

Presently, as Dannie finished a wheat-shock and 
looked abroad, he saw, as something that springs into 
being while one nods, a great bank of cloud stretch- 
ing far across the south. Like a mountain-wall of 
sulphur, save that its base was black-green, it came 
heaving upward. As a wave of vapor it was in- 
describably majestic and beautiful, as a menace to 
the wealth and glory of a hundred fields its look was 
terrible. As the boy turned with a cry upon his 
lips, he saw in the northwest quarter of the heavens 
a spire of vapor break suddenly as from under- 
ground. It was like the crowning splinter of a 
mountain crag, and almost in a breath a mighty, 
tumbling bulk of greenish clouds burst up into the 
sky. It seemed driven by an inconceivably violent 
wind, and pitched out over the earth as if to fall upon 
and bury it in ruin. The horses were hastily un- 
hitched and tied to a fence, the men, obedient to 


12 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


Uncle Nathan’s fiercely shouted orders, began rap- 
idly putting the grain into shocks. Dannie worked 
on, looking momentarily at the approaching monsters 
of the sky. 

Presently, however, he forgot his work in the 
grandeur of the spectacle. The cloud-range from 
the south rolled northward like a world-wide billow, 
all its forefront brassy green; the cloud-mountain 
from the northwest plunged out across the zenith, 
and earth, from horizon to horizon, seemed to jar 
and hum. In the west, that first silent tower of 
vapor stood unmoved, the sunlight streaming out 
above its jagged turrets like blood-red wings. The 
air then suddenly turned a brown-dusk, and Dannie 
saw the men fleeing like shadows toward the distant 
farmhouse. He lingered a moment, looking up- 
ward, and saw the rushing clouds come together like 
hurling continents. A hundred awful forks of 
lightning leaped out with the impact, followed by an 
appalling thunder-crash. Spurred by terror he fled 
toward the house. 

As he ran he felt the hot, breathless atmosphere 
turn cold as ice, and instantly, as if he had been a 
feather, he was lifted into the dark air and whirled 
upward. 


THE CYCLONE 


13 


For a little space he continued running, though 
there was only air beneath his feet. He felt his 
clothing being torn from his body as by the cogs of 
an invisible machine; a thousand insects seemed to 
sting him; he cried aloud, but in the awful roar that 
filled his ears his voice was a whisper. 

He saw nothing for a few moments. If the 
medium in which he swam were black, or if the 
velocity of his flight produced the effect of darkness 
on the eye, he could not tell. Death or uncon- 
sciousness must have quickly ensued but that he sud- 
denly burst into the open valve of the funnel of 
clouds. For a moment he saw the earth, hundreds of 
feet below him, like something whirling dizzily at 
the bottom of a mighty well; far above him he saw 
faint stars, spinning like a tangle of fireflies, and 
around him the green walls of vapor whistled with 
such speed the circling vapor seemed to stand 
still. 

Seemingly he hung suspended in the open core of 
the cloud-funnel for a great space of time, but doubt- 
less the time was no more than a few seconds, yet, 
in the rush and whirl of things he saw one vision 
that he has never forgotten — the dim, distorted face 
of Uncle Hathan flashing by him. He only got a 


14 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


glimpse of it, but the terror and strange look painted 
upon it has never faded from his memory. 

If Dannie fell down to earth through the open 
funnel of that unpicturable whirlpool, or shot up- 
ward through its gaping mouth to float with other 
atoms in the sky, he does not know, for, as things 
change with a wink in dreams, he was suddenly en- 
gulfed in darkness, his throat closed, a hot cord 
seemed to tighten round his heart, and he was swept 
into oblivion. 

He awoke in a broken wood. About him the grove 
lay like flax upon a threshing-floor. He was wedged 
tightly in the fork of a small tree, the tree itself 
being flattened nearly to the earth. In vain he tried 
to wrench himself loose; he was wrapped tightly 
from head to foot in corn-blades, grass, and straw. 
His face was turned downward, and there upon the 
ground, six or seven feet below him, he beheld a 
spectacle that moved him to cries of consterna- 
tion. 

Uncle Nathan lay there struggling apparently in 
the throes of death. Only a small portion of the 
man’s face was visible and that looked black and un- 
natural. About him the whirling torrents of air 
had wrapped a thick blanket of straw and twisted 


THE CYCLONE 


15 


ropes of hay. The stuff seemed glued upon 
him. A mummy, bound in a thousand yards of 
linen, could not have been more helpless than he. 
Clearly he was suffocating, darkness was gather- 
ing in his brain, death was not far away. Seeing 
this, Dannie strained wildly against the tangling 
things that bound him, but was as one fast in a vise. 
Staring in horror at the man below him, he shouted 
with all his strength for help. 

Another thread of destiny then unwound. Old 
Flaps, whose “ proper doom ” was burial, came sniff- 
ing and yelping among the fallen tree-tops, all un- 
hurt, and with the rope by which Dannie had tied 
him now dangling from his neck! He had lived 
through the storm, had stood among the falling trees 
and the whirl and wreck of things untouched. Per- 
haps he was shielded in the hollow of a Hand in- 
visible to man, and for a purpose. Who shall say? 
At sight of him the boy’s blood bounded with joy. 

“ Flaps! Flaps!” he cried, “look at Uncle 
Hath an! Look, Flaps, look! Help him pull the 
stuff away! Can’t you see?” 

Flaps looked up at Dannie with his dim old eyes 
full of questions and concern and whined piteously. 

“ Don’t mind me,” implored Dannie, “ help Uncle 


16 TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 

Nathan! Can’t you understand? Don’t you 
see? ” 

Flaps considered the quivering bundle before him 
an instant; set one of his paws upon it and sniffed, 
then began tearing away the strangling stuff that en- 
meshed the man. With teeth and claws and in a 
fury of eagerness he wrenched and tore the stuff, 
yelping oddly, as if to call back the man from the 
black swoon into which he had fallen. With finest 
instinct the dog ripped loose the obstructions about 
Uncle Nathan’s head and neck, then he began work- 
ing lower down, all the time growling and fetching 
sharp cries of warning. When Uncle Nathan’s 
arms were free he began tossing them about like a 
fevered sleeper, drawing into his lungs great gasps 
of air. 

“ Good dog ! Good old Flaps ! ” cried Dannie, “ you 
know more than most people ! Don’t give it up ! ” 

Flaps looked up at his young master and gave a 
yelp or two, then fell to his task again. At length 
Uncle Nathan stood up and stretched his arms and 
rubbed his forehead and looked oddly about, much 
like one waking from a nightmare. Flaps leaped 
about him, barking joyfully. 

“ In Heaven’s name, what is the matter? Where 


THE CYCLONE 17 

am I, and where have I been?” muttered Uncle 
Nathan. 

“ We’ve been np in a balloon, uncle,” said Dannie, 
half laughing, and half in tears. 

Uncle Nathan looked up at the boy and the dazed 
expression died out of his eyes. “ Well, by gum, 
this beats all! ” he blurted. In a moment he had 
Dannie out of the tree-fork and had torn the strange 
wrappings from his body. When the lad was free 
they stood there, bruised and tattered as freshly 
picked geese, and looked at each other. Old Flaps 
stood on his hind feet and pawed them and barked 
until he choked. 

“ He did it ! Flaps saved us ! ” cried Dannie, and 
though he was so shaken and dizzy he could hardly 
stand, he grabbed the old dog about the neck and 
hugged him and laughed. 

Uncle Nathan looked down at the tangled and 
twisted stuff that the dog had torn away from him 
and suddenly comprehended. 

“Well, I swan!” he breathed, in hushed, awed 
fashion, and again, “ Well, I swan! ” in wonder and 
reverence. 

He stooped and took the dog’s head between his 
hands and the two looked into each other’s eyes. The 


18 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


eyes of the animal were shining and glorified, the 
eyes of the man were wet. A sudden sense of the 
brotherhood of all creatures, the sacredness and 
unity of all life, glowed in the man’s soul like a new- 
lit lamp. 

“ To think that I was going to kill you, and 

now ” he broke off huskily. He straightened up 

and looked about him. The grove lay jagged and 
broken like a handful of crushed and scattered 
tooth-picks, a broad path of ruin stretched across 
Camass Prairie, the sky, blown clean of clouds, lifted 
itself in a vast tent of blue ether. He closed his 
eyes and his lips moved. Dannie glanced at him and 
suddenly stood still and reverent. He had never 
before seen Uncle Nathan pray. 

“ Let us go home,” said Uncle Nathan presently, 
“ I hope no one has been — been — killed.” 

They began to pick their way forward among the 
fallen trees, and again and again Dannie peered up 
wonderingly at Uncle Nathan’s face, it looked so in- 
effably compassionate and kind. The austere, al- 
most cruel, gravity of the man’s lineaments had died 
away into softness and loving anxiety. He put down 
his hand to old Plaps, who gamboled stiffly about 
them, and patted his head. 


THE CYCLONE 


19 


“ My old fellow, you shall live out your allotted 
days,” he said, “ and you shall feed on the fat of 
the land. You’ve not only saved my life, but you’ve 
made me ashamed of my hardness of heart! ” 
Dannie winked his eyes hard, for tears began to 
rise in them, and Flaps licked at Uncle Nathan’s 
rough hand and barked, and joyously wiggled him- 
self from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. 


CHAPTER H 


AFTER THE STORM 

"When Dannie and Uncle Nathan had got them- 
selves clear of the ruined grove they were at the 
water’s edge on the north shore of the little lake. 
Obviously the contents of the little lake, commonly 
as tranquil as a summer sky, had felt the twist and 
lift of the monster which had recently swept over 
it. Up the soft slope of the hill through a hundred 
feet fish were strewn, some dead and some still 
wriggling in the grass, while the earth was drenched 
and trickling with the water that had been thrown 
upon it. Uncle Nathan, burning with anxiety to 
know the fate of Aunt Sarah and his men, could 
not bring his attention to even so odd a phenomenon,' 
but Dannie, despite his bruised condition and shaken 
senses, looked at the fish in astonishment. 

“ Come,” said Uncle Nathan anxiously, “ we must 
hurry home! And yet, we may have no home nor 
any one left that we care for ! When we get to the 

top of the hill what shall we see? I’m afraid — I 
20 


AFTER THE STORM 


2i 

hope everything won’t be gone.” His lips trembled 
in his beard and his hands shook. 

But Dannie was peering curiously at an object in 
the lake near them. He caught Uncle Nathan’s 
hand and stopped him. “ Look! ” he said excitedly, 
“ what is that in the water there? Listen! Don’t 
you hear a child or something crying ? ” 

Uncle Nathan looked where Dannie pointed. An 
odd object was floating near the shore. It seemed 
to be a small sail-boat, mastless and wrapped in sail- 
cloth and ropes and marsh-grass and rushes, until its 
appearance was almost that of a drifting mass of 
debris. Out of it issued muffled, distressful cries. 

“ Why, some one’s in there, in that thing — what- 
ever it is! ” cried Uncle Nathan, starting toward the 
object hurriedly. 

But Dannie was before him in the work of succor; 
he ran straight out into the water until it rose nearly 
to his waist, and laying hold of the strange-looking 
object, dragged it to the shore, where Uncle Nathan, 
setting his big, calloused fingers into the mass of stuff, 
pulled it partly out upon the land. The pitiful cries 
then came to them more clearly, and they began to 
tear at the stuff that composed the mass with much 
the same haste and fearful eagerness that old Flaps 


22 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


had displayed in getting Uncle Nathan loose from 
the strangling things that had bound him. 

“ This is too slow/’ said Uncle Nathan, breathing 
hard and getting his knife out of his pocket and open- 
ing it; “I guess there’s a baby in here or — some- 
body! ” 

He began to rip the sharp knife-blade through the 
sail-cloth and ropes and vines and marsh-grass, while 
Dannie pulled and hauled at the tangled material. 
“ It’s a boat — there’s a boat in here ! ” cried Dannie, 
“ there’s the edge of it ! ” 

“ Yes, it’s a boat! Well, I swan, but this is 
strange!” exclaimed Uncle Nathan, as he worked. 
Old Flaps, as interested as the man and boy, whined 
and tore at the stuff with his worn teeth and claws. 

When an opening had been made sufficiently large, 
the rescuers were further astonished, for there arose 
from the interior of the boat a youth of about Dan- 
nie’s age and stared at them curiously. He had a 
good American face, with gray eyes and wavy, 
light-brown hair, and was dressed in navy-blue trou- 
sers and a white wool sweater. On the rolled collar 
of the sweater at the back of his neck was a spot of 
red, where blood had trickled down from a wound at 
the base of the brain. Some object, hurled by the 


AFTER THE STORM 


23 


tempest, had probably struck him or he had been 
thrown against some projecting point of the boat. 
Oddly enough, he held in one hand a small iron 
wheel and in the other a screw-driver. His look was 
somewhat similar to the expression of one who walks 
in sleep, and, manifestly, his hold upon the objects 
in his hands was involuntary and not recognized men- 
tally. He looked at Uncle Nathan and Dannie and 
about him in a vague, dazed way, much as a child 
might look at strange faces and a strange scene, men- 
tally questioning in the simplest fashion what it all 
meant and if it were all right that he should be there. 
His lips moved as if he would put his questioning 
into words, but the sounds his tongue formed were 
exactly like those made by a little child that had not 
yet learned to shape words and construct sentences. 

u My poor boy,” said Uncle Nathan compassion- 
ately, “ you’ve been hurt, haven’t you? ” 

The lad stared at him, clearly not understanding. 
“ Where did you come from, and what is your 
name?” inquired Uncle Nathan, and still the boy 
stared, wondering and perplexed. 

“ I reckon he’s a mute — must be deaf and dumb,” 
said Uncle Nathan, aside to Dannie. 

The boy, standing in the boat, looked down at the 


24 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


tangled stuff at his feet and drew across his forehead 
the back of the hand that held the little wheel. He 
seemed trying to remember who he was, whence he 
came, and why he was there. His hand fell to his 
side with a helpless movement, his face was blank 
and pale, his lips made odd, inarticulate sounds. He 
looked so pitiful, so lost, so helpless, Dannie felt 
tears springing to his eyes. He put his hand on the 
strange boy’s arm. 

“ Come with me, won’t you? ” he said coaxingly; 
“ we won’t hurt you. I guess you’ve been injured. 
We’ll get a doctor and we’ll take care of you. 
Come, won’t you ? ” 

The strange lad scanned his face as a child might, 
doubting, half afraid, yet with increasing trust. 
After hesitating a moment and feeling Dannie gently 
drawing him, he stepped out on the wet sod. He 
looked to be about an inch taller than the country 
boy and not quite so sturdy, neither did he look 
used to such hard labor as Dannie had been accus- 
tomed to. It hardly seemed a wonder that the child- 
like stranger was puzzled and somewhat timid, for 
both Dannie and Uncle Hathan were really “sights ” 
to see. 

Such garments as the tempest had left upon them 


AFTER THE STORM 


25 


were in strips and tatters, and their hands and faces 
were almost black from the dust that had been driven 
against them, besides, the head of neither was 
adorned by any covering save hair, tumbled to all 
angles by the wind and flecked with bits of bark and 
chaff. Uncle Hathan looked the more forbidding, 
since he was bearded and elderly and grizzled, but 
his eyes, at least, were kind and his words were gentle. 
Dannie’s whole expression, despite his blackened and 
tattered aspect, was that of eager tenderness. He 
took the wheel and screw-driver smilingly from the 
boy’s hands and dropped them in the boat, then 
stopped and pulled the stuff away from the little 
craft until its whole interior was exposed. A num- 
ber of wheels and small rods and pieces of pipe were 
scattered along its bottom, and near the stern was 
fastened a cylindrical affair that looked like some 
sort of new-fangled motor. 

It was all very odd and mysterious. Dannie and 
Uncle Uathan could scarcely even surmise what it 
meant or who the young stranger could be. Per- 
haps the lad was of an inventive turn of mind, and 
had been engaged in constructing some unusual sort 
of mechanism for propelling boats; perhaps he had 
been so deeply engrossed in his work that he had 


26 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


not been aware of the cyclone’s approach until he 
and the boat had been caught up into the air; per- 
haps he had been dashed down against the bottom 
of the boat and rendered unconscious by the impact 
and had retained his hold on the wheel and screw- 
driver by the involuntary contraction of the muscles 
of his hands; perhaps he was deaf and dumb, or 
maybe the normal operations of his mind had been 
obstructed in some way by the blow which he had 
evidently received. 

Not all of these conjectures presented themselves 
clearly to Uncle Nathan and Dannie at the moment, 
but rather some vague, quick guesses at the solution 
that were akin to these speculations. But from what 
distance or region the young stranger had come, or 
who he was — these were mysteries indeed. There 
had been but one craft of any sort on the little lake, 
a rowboat, small and old, that Dannie occasionally 
found time to entertain himself with, therefore the 
stranger must have arrived from a distance. Was 
it possible that he, unconscious perhaps, had voy- 
aged along the sky? Surely, whatever his dreams 
of sailing were, he could hardly have conceived of a 
journey so wonderful as this. 

“ Come/’ said Uncle Nathan, suddenly aroused 


AFTER THE STORM 


27 


from his musing by the terrifying thought of what 
might be in store for their eyes at the house, “ we 
must hurry, we must hurry! Bring the boy along 
with you. If he won’t come let him stay here; we 
can look after him later.” 

Dannie took the young stranger’s hand and they 
started up the slope. The stranger seemed not at 
all injured, only in his eyes and face dwelt that half- 
dazed, childlike, wondering look. Toward the top 
of ihe slope he stopped and looked back at the boat, 
then down at his clothes and his person and around 
at the landscape, then again he took Dannie’s hand 
and went onward, exactly like a trusting child. 

When they arrived at the hill’s crest the country 
toward the northwest lay open to the eye. With the 
first glance Uncle Nathan caught his breath with 
a kind of sob and threw up his hands with a gesture 
of despaii. The dwelling-house was gone, swept 
away utterly, but the barns were standing appar- 
ently untouched. Then Aunt Sarah must have been 
killed, and with her Kristine, the Norwegian hired 
girl! He did not wait for Dannie and the young 
stranger, but ran forward with might and main 
across the fields, spurred by fear and apprehension. 
At the bottom of his impatient nature were springs 


28 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


of tenderness that rarely flowed, obstructed as they 
were by constant thoughts of property acquirement, 
but a power beyond all human strength or measure- 
ment had lain hold of him and those he loved, and 
all that was best in him suddenly leaped to life and 
activity. If Sarah, his wife and companion through 
many years, were dead! With the thought his pant- 
ing lips trembled and his eyes grew dim and invol- 
untarily he prayed as he ran. 

Dannie, when he had reached the hill’s crest and 
saw that the big dwelling was gone, dropped the 
stranger’s hand and also ran. In his brain, too, 
leaped terrifying thoughts and imagined pictures of 
the cruel inflictions of death. The lad found in the 
mysterious boat followed on swift feet, his eyes upon 
Dannie, as children follow the leader. Thus all 
three presently came with dry lips and laboring 
breath to the inclosure where the houc: had stood. 
About the large yard a double row of soft maples 
had stood and along the road in front of the house a 
row of locust trees. Those formerly standing on 
the north and east and south sides were gone, torn 
up by the roots or twisted off near the earth. The 
row of locusts fronting the highway were standing 
in perfect order, rustling their foliage quietly as if 


AFTER THE STORM 


29 


there had never been a storm. The big stone-walled 
basement of the house was nearly empty, the wind 
having apparently sucked it clean of everything; the 
door of the root-cellar at the back of the yard stood 
open. To this haven of safety Uncle Nathan ran; 
the contents of the cellar were undisturbed, but no 
human being was there. 

“ Maybe the folks are in the barn,” cried Dannie, 
running rapidly in that direction, but, swift as were 
his steps, Uncle Nathan was there before him. 
They ran through the great building calling wildly, 
then through the granary and the tool-house, but all 
was quiet and unmolested. As they came out of 
the tool-house Uncle Nathan’s grimy hands went to 
his throat convulsively and he seemed about to fall. 

“ They are all dead,” he cried hoarsely, “ they’ve 
been blown away with the house and killed! ” His 
agony of spirit was pitiful to see. 

Dannie stood transfixed with awe and terror of 
the calamity for a moment, a vision of dead faces 
and torn bodies and loneliness and desolation pass- 
ing before him, then suddenly he started and shouted 
aloud with joy. “ Look! ” he cried, “ there is Aunt 
Sarah coming through the gap in the wind-break, 
down there ! ” 


30 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


Uncle Nathan looked and gave a shout that was 
good to hear. He ran forward with a great light of 
gladness in his face, and when he had reached Aunt 
Sarah’s side, for the first time in months, no doubt, 
put his arms around her and kissed her. The good 
wife was all unhurt, and together the two elderly 
people laughed and cried like happy children, while 
Dannie danced and skipped, and the young stranger 
looked on with wondering eyes. 

“ Where are Kristine and the men, mother? ” 
asked Uncle Nathan breathlessly. 

“ They are all safe, Nathan. The men got into 
the barn and Kristine and I ran into the 
root-cellar,” she replied. “ They are all off in the 
fields somewhere looking for you and Dannie. We 
was all frightened nearly crazy, for we thought you 
and Dannie must be killed.” 

Touched beyond the use of words, Uncle Nathan 
lifted his face toward the wide dome of sky and his 
bearded lips moved silently. In the presence of 
this great salvation what were houses and barns and 
crops or any material thing for which he had striven? 
He felt reverent, humble, thankful, and profoundly 
impressed with the sense of the mighty forces that 
surround men in the world and in the presence of 


AFTER THE STORM 


31 


which they should walk in unselfish humility. He 
again kissed Aunt Sarah tenderly. 

“ Pm glad, very glad, you and the boys and the 
girl are all right. Dannie, get on one of the horses 
and ride around through the fields and hunt up the 
men and Kristine, they are probably worrying about 
us. Hello, here comes Flaps! Well, old fellow, 
I’m tickled to see you ! Do you know, mother, this 
poor old chap, crippled and half blind, did the best 
work in the whole bunch! He’s a real hero, ain’t 
you, Flaps?” 

The old dog wriggled and barked joyously about 
them, reared himself up with his paws on Uncle 
Nathan’s breast, and looking in his face, seemingly 
laughed outright. 


CHAPTER m 


GOING OVER THE GROUND 

“Who is the young fellow, the stranger there?” 
asked Aunt Sarah in a half whisper, after Dannie 
had ridden away into the fields in search of the men. 

“ Why, mother, we. really don’t know. We found 
a queer kind of boat down on the lake, brought there 
somehow by the storm, I reckon, and the boy was 
in it. Seems like there’s something wrong in his 
upper story, for he can’t talk and don’t act like he 
knew where he came from or who he is. Seems 
mighty queer; you better see if you can get anything 
out of him about himself.” 

The motherly Mrs. Harp approached the youth 
and asked him his name in her kindly way, and in- 
quired from what quarter he had come, and if his 
mother were living and where and when he had left 
her, to all of which the pale boy answered nothing. 
After looking at her in an odd, questioning fashion 
for a few moments, he went close up to her and took 
her hand and stood by her side as a child might. In 
32 


GOING OYER THE GROUND 


33 


his face was a mingled expression of appeal, entreaty, 
and perplexity, but plainly he trusted her, though, as 
plainly, he did not know who he was, nor whence 
he had come. 

The woman was deeply touched; with sure in- 
stinct she felt his helplessness, and her heart went 
out to him. “ My poor boy, you are lost, you’ve 
been hurt and there’s something awful the matter 
with you,” she said. “ You can stay with us, we’ll 
take care of you and try and find out what is the 
trouble.” At that she remarked the red stain on the 
collar of the white sweater. “ Oh, you’ve been hit,” 
she exclaimed, “ your hair is matted with blood here 
at the back of your neck. I guess your brain has 
been sort of numbed. We will have to get you 
a doctor as soon as we can.” 

The boy looked at her kind face with interest, as 
if her voice were grateful to his ear and her sym- 
pathy sweet, but clearly he could not comprehend. 

“ Why, Nathan, how your clothes are torn and 
how black you are ! ” exclaimed Aunt Sarah, sud- 
denly awake to the soiled and battered condition of 
her husband. In her relief that Uncle Nathan and 
Dannie had returned alive from the general wreck of 
things, their astonishing physical aspect had made 


34 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


little impression upon her. “ Where have you been 
and how did you escape? Why, you look like you’d 
been run through a threshing-machine, at least your 
clothes do! ” 

Uncle Nathan laid one of his grimy hands on her 
shoulder and looked down in her broad, good- 
natured face. “ Wife,” he said gravely, “ I’ve been 
up near the sky; I’ve looked in the face of God and 
in the face of Death, and I know what kind of a man 
1 am. Mercy and life have been extended to me; I 
know what love is; it has been revealed to me by a 
dumb creature that had served me long and that I 
had intended to slay. Even hard luck is sometimes 
good luck, for it shows a man himself as he is. 
When I was up in the air there, flying toward 
destruction, I saw what sort of a being I was — 
greedy, hard, unmerciful; when I saw love and joy 
in the eyes of the poor creature I had thought to slay 
— love for me, and joy that he had saved me from 
death — I knew what sort of man I ought to be, and, 
wife, I’m going to try and be that sort of man.” 

Aunt Sarah looked up at him with swimming eyes. 
“ We’ve all been too selfish, too taken up with mak- 
ing money, I’m afraid,” she said. “A little more 
love and kindness and not quite so much land I ex- 


GOING OVER THE GROUND 


35 


pect would have made us happier, Nathan. I’ve 
often thought if death should overtake us we couldn’t 
take the land along, and we’ve almost forgotten how 
to be good to each other in trying to get so much 
property. I read the other day that to be good to 
each other and to everything, was the only way to be 
happy, and I guess it’s so.” 

“ Yes, for I know I haven’t been happy, just 
greedy, and impatient to get more than I needed, 
that’s all. I’m going to try and look out for others 
a little more than I have. If a dog can love folks 
and be unselfish I reckon I can, else I ain’t much of 
a man.” He turned and stroked old Flaps’ head, 
laughing softly, though half in tears. 

“ Well, wife,” he went on, straightening up 
briskly, “ I reckon we will have to begin to figure 
out where and how we are going to live. I’m so 
tickled to think that we are all alive that I don’t 
seem to care much about the house and things that 
are gone. I reckon we’ll have to live in the granary 
or the tool-house until we can get another house 
built.” 

“ Anything will do, for we are all alive and it’s 
summertime,” said Aunt Sarah cheerfully. “ We 
ought to be thankful, for I expect there is sorrow 


36 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


and trouble enough in some places on the Prairie 
and probably beyond it. I wonder if any one was 
killed by the storm anywhere ? ” She stood still 
looking mistily toward the northwest. Uncle 
Nathan also stopped and gazed otf across the fields, 
a deep appreciation of what might have fallen to 
others mirrored in his rugged face. 

Their own possessions were so wide in area they 
could not make out clearly to what degree the Ca- 
mass Prairie dwellers had suffered, but plainly here 
and there fences and whole fields of grain were gone, 
and here and there orchards and groves and hay ? ricks 
and barns had been swept away. Twenty miles dis- 
tant toward the north lay Conner Lake, surrounded 
by a considerable forest. Through the heart of the 
forest a broad gap was now distinguishable. To- 
ward the south, rolling down and down in long 
waves, the beautiful land swept to a far horizon. 
They could not encompass it wholly with the eye, 
but they made out that there was a great scar across 
it toward the southeast and a narrower trail of havoc 
leading from the southwest to a point nearer their 
own little lake. Between those two paths, along 
which had hurled inconceivable forces, lay Sid- 
well, the county seat, eight miles away. With- 


GOING OYER THE GROUND 


37 


out question that had gone untouched. But how 
had fared the little towns lying on the railway east 
and west of it? They could not distinguish, but al- 
most surely Roundville, the first village eastward 
from Sidwell, had been struck. Uncle Nathan 
roused himself from his air of sad contempla- 
tion. 

“ I hope it ain’t as bad as it looks,” he said, “ but 
it’s likely worse. I feel pretty sick and sore, wife, 
but I’ve got to go and see if others don’t need help 
more than we do.” 

Dannie rode into the inclosure. Though he was 
bruised and black and ragged, he was jubilant. 
“ I’ve got them rounded up,” he cried; “ they’ll all 
be here in a minute! ” 

Presently Kristine and the four hired men joined 
them, and there were exclamations of gladness and 
swift inquiries and cries of wonder. Uncle Nathan 
held up his hand and asked for quiet. 

“ There’s too much work waiting for us ; we can’t 
afford to talk; we will do that later. We’ve got to 
fix a place to live in and there’s a lot of folks in this 
county, 1 expect, who need help. We mustn’t waste 
any time. John, you and Amos clean the tool-house 
of everything that’s in it and sweep the granary, 


88 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


then hunt up everything in the way of bedding that 
you can find. You may be able to find some things 
down through the fields. Jim, you and Luke go 
down and bring up the two teams that we had on the 
machines. I see that they are standing hitched to 
the fence where we left them, though the cyclone 
went straight through the field. Do you see any- 
thing of the self-binders ? I swan, I guess the storm 
took them! Beats all what tricks a cyclone can do! 
Sarah, you’d better go straight to town and bring 
out a wagon-load of things. Jim will drive you over 
and back. Buy whatever you think we need for the 
present. Luke and Dannie will go with me on 
horseback to look for folks that may have got hurt 
or be suffering. The mute boy, or whatever he is, 
can stay here with Kristine and John and Amos. 
Mother, when you are over to Sidwell, you better 
tell Dr. Hammond to come out here and examine 
this young feller. I expect the doctors are all 
mighty busy just now, but tell him to come as soon 
as he can. Now, let each one do his duty and not 
think of himself.” Thus Nathan Harp, swift to 
see and to execute, set each one his task, and pres- 
ently every one was occupied in bringing such order 
as was possible out of the disaster that had fallen. 


GOING OVER THE GROUND 39 

Dannie Dool will remember until bis last moment 
the scenes of that ride, that journey of a night and a 
day, when Uncle Nathan and Luke Martin and he 
rode in the cause of human suffering. Lowly and 
soiled and humble of aspect as they were, the plumed 
knights of old never rode with truer hearts in gentle 
Pity’s cause. 

They made their way to the north and northwest, 
for the citizens of the towns on the railway to the 
southward would no doubt succor the injured and 
needy in that direction, while the small farmers to 
the northward, mostly of Norwegian extraction, and 
a Swedish settlement near Conner Lake, might have 
less means of coping with the sore results of the 
disaster. They penetrated quite to the shores of 
Conner Lake, and returning, did not arrive at the 
Harp homestead until twilight of the next day. 
They had looked upon the ruin of many things, had 
seen faces pale in death and had assuaged, as best 
they might, the pain of more than one who had been 
trampled down by the passing monster. 

Uncle Nathan’s austere and grasping nature soft- 
ened strangely in those days. When they arrived 
home they found Aunt Sarah and Kristine, with 
cook-stove in position and table set, busily preparing 


40 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


supper in the tool-house. With the aid of the men 
they had turned the bins of the granary into bed- 
rooms. Uncle Nathan ate hastily and rode straight 
onward to Sidwell to enlist the authorities in aid 
of the suffering people in the northern part of the 
county. Dannie and Luke, weak with exhaustion, 
fell upon Aunt Sarah’s steaming viands with savage 
appetites, giving between bites such account of the 
scenes and experiences of their journey as their 
burdened organs of speech would permit. To all 
that passed and was said the young stranger 
found in the lake gave curious, wondering atten- 
tion. 

After supper, sore and stiff, and staggering with 
weariness, Dannie went to one of the beds in the 
granary and literally fell upon it. In a few mo- 
ments he had sunk so deep in sleep as to be appar- 
ently beyond even the reach of dreams. With the 
dawn he awoke to hear Uncle Nathan giving orders 
to the men to go to Sidwell and bring out three new 
reaping machines, several fields of grain that had 
escaped the storm being ripe and still uncut. At 
breakfast there was a general conversation relative 
to the work of the destroyer. Things had happened 
of which it were too sad to tell, but of the odd and 


GOING OYER THE GROUND 


41 


curious freaks wrought by the tempest something, 
may here be properly said. 

Much property had been destroyed, and unex- 
plainable marvels wrought by the cyclone. On 
Camass Prairie folk will still tell you of these won- 
ders. A wheel had been wrenched from the axle of 
a wagon without the vehicle, apparently, having 
been moved a foot from its position on the ground, 
feathers were found driven deep into oak planks and 
fence-posts, a small barn was lifted and turned en- 
tirely around and set down again almost precisely 
upon its stone foundation, a horse was blown out of 
a pasture and placed upon its feet uninjured in 
a distant field, letters and books were carried to 
points forty and fifty miles distant without being 
torn, a knitting-needle was found driven completely 
through the trunk of a small tree, human beings were 
borne but a few yards and mortally hurt, others 
were carried a long way off and escaped with only 
minor injuries. These are some of the odd things of 
which they will tell you. 

Another unusual phenomenon was apparent: The 
main body of the tempest had been alive with tiny 
cyclones, little swiftly whirling eddies of air, that 
wrapped grass and straw and other flexible material 


42 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


about innumerable objects. Pigs, boards, clocks, 
barrels, featherless geese and chickens, were found 
thus enmeshed and tied up, and more than a score 
of human beings, among them Uncle Nathan and the 
boy in the boat, had suffered or been saved through 
this strange manifestation. How old Flaps had re- 
mained untouched while the grove, in the midst 
of which he had been tied, was trampled flat, aston- 
ished every one. But his escape was only one of 
many marvels, even more incredible, that might be 
related. 

The most perplexing enigma, however, left in the 
trail of the maddened elements was, perhaps, the 
young stranger and his queer boat. Whether these 
had come from the northeast, from Conner Lake or 
some body of water beyond, or from the southwest, 
on that hurling body of ether which had driven into 
the main whirlpool of storm near the little lake on 
the Harp estate, was the problem. Had the luck- 
less youth been able to identify himself, had the 
faculty of memory remained his, all would have been 
simplified. As it was the folk at Harp’s talked to 
each other in undertones and wonder, and still talked 
and wondered, perplexed by the mystery that the 
storm had brought them. 


GOING OVER THE GROUND 


43 


In the afternoon of the second day after the 
tempest Dr. Hammond drove into the yard at Harp’s. 
He sprang to the ground from the buggy and asked 
Dannie to care for his team. He was a large man, 
florid and with keen blue eyes. He was in a hurry; 
indeed every one in all that region, save the dead 
and injured, were in a hurry, so very, very much 
was in need of being done. He met Aunt Sarah near 
the door of the tool-house and shook her hand. He 
glanced at the basement walls where the dwelling 
had stood. 

“ Got off lucky,” he said laconically. 

“ Yes, I suppose so; none of the family or hired 
folks got hurt,” said Mrs. Harp. “ I expect you’ve 
had lots to do and seen some pretty bad sights, doc- 
tor?” 

The physician shut his lips tight and slowly nodded 
his head, but made no reply. “ Where’s the strange 
boy, the chap Hathan told me about?” he asked. 

The pale lad was sitting on a box in front of the 
granary. He held a book in his hands and was turn- 
ing it about and looking curiously at it, as a child 
might inspect a curious toy. He rubbed his fore- 
head with his hand at times and turned the book 
upside down and over and over, puckering his brow 


44 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


and gazing hard at the pages, as if puzzled and anxi- 
ous to know what they contained. 

“ That is the boy, there,” said Aunt Sarah. 
“ Seems like a nice young fellow and looks like his 
folks might be well off. Wish we could find out who 
he is; but ’pears as if he’d clear forgot everything. 
Beats all about him, anyhow.” 

Dr. TIammond walked down and stopped in front 
of the lad and put out his hand. The doctor knew 
how to smile engagingly and his ruddy face 
lit up as with sunshine. The young stranger took 
the big, warm hand outstretched to him, and looked 
into the doctor’s eyes, first timidly, then with confi- 
dence. 

“ Ilow are you, my boy, how are you? ” said the 
doctor genially. 

The youth’s eyes came away from the doctor’s 
face slowly and with a cast of confusion in them. 
He looked at the ground and tried to speak, but, 
though his lips produced sounds, he could form no 
sentences. 

The doctor seated himself upon the box, and draw- 
ing the lad to his side caressingly, asked him many 
questions relative to his home and his past. But 
all to no purpose; the strange youth’s mind seemed 


GOING OVER THE GROUND 


45 


a blank. Then the physician began a gentle though 
persistent and thorough examination into the lad’s 
physical condition. At times a light as of certain dis- 
covery came into the learned man’s face, again his 
eyes showed a cast of doubt and uncertainty. 
Clearly to the scientific man the case was a puzzling 
though highly interesting one. At last, with the 
reserve and temperance of the real physician, he 
said: 

“ This seems, Mrs. Harp, to be a case of nerve ob- 
struction resulting from shock. Doctors .seldom 
meet with the particular difficulty which is here in- 
dicated. As nearly as I am able to judge, and in 
such cases no man can be absolutely certain without 
having known the patient previously, the trouble 
with this boy cames under the head of what doctors 
call amnesia and aphasia. Amnesia is the term used 
to designate loss of memory and aphasia the term de- 
noting the loss, in man, of the power to form words 
with the organs of speech. 

“ Of the two difficulties the loss of the power of 
speech is most readily accounted for, since in such 
cases the nerves leading from the brain to the ma- 
chinery of articulation have manifestly been ob- 
structed from some cause, the brain’s command of 


46 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


the speech organs being thus cut off, but the faculty 
of memory is still a good deal of a mystery even to 
the most capable physiologists. It is not so easy to 
explain about that.” 

With this Dannie and Uncle Nathan, anxious to 
hear the physician’s verdict, joined the little group 
by the granary door. 

“ I was explaining to Mrs. Harp,” continued the 
doctor, “ that the power to produce spoken words 
and the capacity of memory have been apparently 
suspended in this youth as a result of severe shock, 
the blow which fell upon the base of his brain being 
doubtless the direct cause. 

“ There must, necessarily, be more or less uncer- 
tainty regarding the character of the disaster which 
has here taken place, since its location is the theater 
of the mind, and that is closed to our eyes. A good 
many theories have been advanced, and many illus- 
trations used to explain the theories, relative to the 
mind’s operations and the obstruction of its pro- 
cesses ; but perhaps as good an illustration as any 
would be to say that all about and through the brain 
run a multitude of nerves, thread-like strings of 
infinitely tiny beads or cells, the beads of each string 
resting against each other. These strings of linked 


GOING OVER THE GROUND 


47 


cells lead to all parts of the body from the mind’s 
seat, conveying the mind’s wishes and commands to 
the several organs of activity. 

“ Sometimes these linked cells are jarred or 
pressed apart and the mind becomes unable to com- 
municate its desires to the organs of motion. That 
apparently is what has taken place in connection 
with this boy’s organs of speech, producing what is 
called aphasia. As for his loss of memory, that is 
not, as I said before, so easy of explanation. Per- 
haps one might venture to guess that there are in 
the brain thousands of cells which, through the as- 
tonishing subtility and wisdom of nature, are pre- 
pared somewhat like photographic plates. Upon 
these sensitive disks or cells, though microscopic in 
size, all sorts of scenes and impressions are mirrored 
and fixed, ready for intelligent conciousness to take 
up and use at any moment. Now the mind must in 
some way come into connection with these photo- 
graphic cells swiftly and accurately, picking out the 
desired cell at will in order to produce the phenome- 
non we call memory. Doctors have ventured the 
explanation that the mind proper connects itself 
with the memory cells by indescribably small tube- 
like tentacles, these floating tubes seizing the desired 


48 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


cell at will and magnifying its minute photograph to 
normal size in the mind, and dropping it to take up 
another disk or cell with marvelous swiftness, and 
that loss of memory is occasioned by the inability 
of the magnifying tentacles to come into connection 
with the magnifying cells. In other words, by rea- 
son of shock, or other cause, the delicate mechanism 
by which old impressions are reproduced in the mind 
is thrown apart and a blank condition ensues. 

“ Whether or not this, or any of the other ex- 
planations that have been put forward, is true in 
detail, I cannot say. But clearly, as in the case of 
this young stranger, something of the sort takes 
place; with the blow upon the head or from a fall, 
or as a consequence of some other shock, memory 
of the past ceases. In time, if the injury done the 
brain be not too serious, nature readjusts the me- 
chanism of the mind, and, lo! the memory is there. 
The minute photographs are again magnified and 
illuminated in the magic chamber of the soul and 
we look upon the pictured past. 

“ How, Fve said all this because the case is a 
curious one, and that you may understand, as far 
as possible, the condition of this unfortunate boy, 
and that you may know in some degree what to ex- 


GOING OYER THE GROUND 


49 


pect. Little can be done beyond keeping the young 
fellow in his present apparently good bodily health 
until nature adjusts his mental apparatus. 

“ It may be a long time before he recovers his 
memory or the power of speech, though these facul- 
ties might return to him at any moment, suddenly and 
from no visible cause, or, even, by reason of another 
shock or sudden excitement. You have found no 
evidence on his person or elsewhere showing from 
what place he came or who he is? ” 

“ Nothing so far,” said Uncle Nathan. “ Of 
course, we haven’t had time to pay him much atten- 
tion, there’s been so much else to look after.” 

“ The name on the side of the boat that we found 
him in is ‘ Marvel,’ ” said Dannie. “ We don’t 
know if that is his name or the name of his sister 
or some other girl, or if he had the name put on be- 
cause the boat is such a curious one. There’s some 
awful funny-looking wheels and contrivances inside 
of the boat. We might call him Mute Marvel, be- 
cause he can’t talk and from the name on tho boat. 
We’ve got to call him something, you know.” 

The' doctor looked at Dannie and smiled. “ You 
seem to be a pretty clever sort of a kid yourself,” 
he said. “ You must pay attention to the boy and 


50 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


keep him cheered up, though I fancy it’s hardly 
worth while to tell you that. Of course, Mr. Harp, 
you’ll advertise in the papers and try to find the 
boy’s parents or guardian. Somewhere there must be 
people who think him dead or are looking for him.” 

“ Yes, I’ll attend to that just as soon as I get time. 
I will have items put in the Sidwell papers and will 
send notice to the papers up in Conner County,” 
said Uncle Nathan. 

“ Very well. I will leave a tonic for the boy to 
take. Keep him busy and entertained as much as 
possible. If he droops and seems melancholy let 
me know. I must hurry on now; I have several 
people to see.” 

As the doctor took up his instrument case and 
went toward his buggy he glanced at the basement 
walls of the obliterated dwelling house and then at 
Uncle Nathan. 

“ I suppose you’ll build again? ” he queried. 

u Right away,” replied the big, grizzled farmer 
with resolute decision. “ I’ve ordered the lumber. 
Say, Doc, you know I’ve got twelve hundred and 
eighty acres of land. Well, I sold three hundred and 
twenty acres to Furnell yesterday for twelve thou- 
sand dollars. I’m only going to put about three 


GOING OYER THE GROUND 51 

thousand in the new house and another thousand in 
machinery and furniture, so I’ll have about eight 
thousand left. I wish you’d keep a lookout for 
folks that need help, that lost their houses in the 
storm, them that are poor and really in need, and let 
me know. I’m going to give that eight thousand 
toward getting new houses for these folks. I don’t 
want any one to know where the money comes 
from.” He walked close up to the physician and 
lowered his voice, while his sun-burned face flushed 
a deeper red. “ I tell you what, Doc,” he went on, 
“ when you find the right people to give to you just 
draw on me for the money and keep quiet. If they 
want to know where the money is cornin’ from tell 
’em they don’t need to mind about that, that a feller 
who is sort o’ thankful that he’s alive’ has got more 
money than he needs and is givin’ it free and don’t 
want any questions asked. Will you do that for me, 
Doc?” 

Dr. Hammond smiled, but there was something 
very like tears in his bright blue eyes. “ Why, cer- 
tainly, Harp, I’ll do it if you want me to. It’s 
surely very noble of you to ” 

“ Hever mind, now, never mind,” said Uncle 
Hath an, with a protesting lift of his big, rough 


52 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


hands, “ Fm awkward about doing good ’cause I 
never done much of it, and you know how. Besides 
I don’t want any one’s thanks. I just want to do 
my duty and let it go at that. You’ll be around 
where the needy are right along and I’m goin’ to be 
powerful busy, anyhow. You’ll find the eight thou- 
sand to your credit in the bank, so just draw on it 
for them that needs it most and say nothing; be par- 
ticular to say nothing.” 

The doctor heartily shook the calloused hand that 
was thrust up to his, as he sat in the buggy, and 
promised, and Uncle Eathan hurried away to his 
work. As the doctor drove off there was a soft 
smile about his lips and his eyes looked mistily 
ahead. “ Most people are kind,” he mused, “ really 
every man is an angel — his soul is an angel — only 
that part of him gets numbed and asleep, covered up 
with dirt and selfishness sometimes. When the dirt 
and selfishness get broken away by sorrow or some 
sort of a blow, lo, out steps the angel, white and 
beautiful and all right! Beats all how many good 
people there are in the world, anyway,” and he 
slapped the backs of his horses softly with the reins 
and whistled cheerily as he whirled away through 
the sunshine. 


CHAPTER IV 


AN IMPORTANT CAPTURE 

With the lapse of no more than a week a new 
dwelling began to rise upon the basement walls 
where the Harp residence had stood. In the matter 
of accomplishing things Uncle Ha than always ex- 
hibited the real American push. He wished the 
dwelling completed by the time snow should fly, 
hence the builders were at once set to work and in- 
structed not to dawdle and lose time in the accom- 
plishment of the task. Dannie was released from 
laboring in the fields and put about the business of 
running errands for the carpenters and entertaining 
the young stranger. 

“ Make things as pleasant as you can for the boy,” 
said Uncle Nathan to Dannie. “ Whatever he 
seems to want to do, help him to do it. Keep his 
mind going so he won’t droop. The doctor said that 
ought to be done. Take him down to the lake fish- 
ing now and then, help him to repair and straighten 
out his boat if he takes a notion, let him row your 
53 


54 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


boat if be seems to want to; I expect be likes things 
of that sort. I imagine he has been an inventive 
chap, so if be takes a notion to try to make any sort 
of thing, why, give him the tools and help him any 
way you can, or, if you feel like it, make things your- 
self and let him watch you. That might prove good 
medicine for his mind, you know.” 

Dannie was delighted. In his secret soul he had 
long dreamed of constructing new and strange con- 
trivances, of some time being an inventor. He was 
possessed of imagination and at the same time of a 
strong mechanical sense, but Uncle Uathan had 
brusquely discouraged all of Dannie’s attempted 
tinkerings. To the man such work looked to be a 
sheer waste of time; he had had but slight patience 
with aught that did not pay a prompt and direct 
profit; so Dannie’s “idea's” had starved themselves 
out or had been mentally laid away until manhood’s 
freedom of action should make their realization 
possible. 

But now both Uncle Hath an and the times were 
changed. A strange companion had arrived, 
dropped down from heaven, as it were, who also 
clearly had been possessed of inventive dreams. 
But in what a pitiable state! Would ministering to 


AN IMPORTANT CAPTURE 


55 


the young stranger’s malady bring Dannie oppor- 
tunity and joy? How strange and yet how true 
that no wind, however rough and boisterous, ever 
yet blew that did not bring some one good! 

“ I’ll do everything for him that I can think of, 
Uncle Nathan,” said Dannie, smiles wreathing his 
bright young face. “ I’ve thought of some things 
that I’d like to make, and I’ve got a big spoon-hook 
that Luke gave me that I’m going to try to catch 
the old muskallonge with, down in the lake — the 
big one that has broken so many lines and nearly 
knocked a fellow out of the boat once. I’ll take 
Mute along; we don’t know his name and we’ve got 
to call him something, so I guess I’ll call him Mute. 
He’ll like to help catch a fish like that. Wouldn’t 
his eyes open and wouldn’t he be tickled! It 
might do him a lot of good! ” 

“ N o doubt,” remarked Uncle Nathan with a 
laugh, “ that kind of thing would be medicine for 
’most anybody. Well, I’ve sent items to the papers 
about the chap and I expect some of his folks will 
be along here one of these days. We ought to have 
him well by that time, if we can, for it would be an 
awful thing for his people to find him unable to 
talk or remember anything. Think of him not 


56 TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 

knowing his own mother if he should meet her! 
We must not let such a thing happen.” 

“ I’ll do my part,” cried Dannie heartily. How- 
ever, the voice or eyes or hands of no one in that 
region were kinder or more in service to the young 
stranger than were Aunt Sarah’s. She “ mothered ” 
the pale, dazed, child-like youth with tireless ten- 
derness and care. These attentions cost Aunt 
Sarah the more because she was a very busy woman. 
There were a good many mouths to be fed, hungry, 
insistent mouths, demanding seasonable food and in 
quantity equal ' to the depletions of hard labor. 
The big wagon-shed was fashioned into a dining 
room and was set with a table at least thirty feet 
in length, for the house-builders and farm hands 
and the family formed quite a concourse. A cook 
and a second girl to assist Kristine were employed, 
still good Mrs. Harp was very busy. 

To Dannie and old Flaps the place and its life 
had something of a picnic flavor, for to see the 
granary and tool-house used as bedrooms and the 
wagon-shed turned into a dining room had quite the 
effect of gypsying. Besides, the sawing and ham- 
mering and general activity about the place was 
tonic and inspiriting. 


AN IMPORTANT CAPTURE 


57 


The young stranger kept himself with Dannie 
most of the time. He seemed strongly attracted by 
the eager, bright-faced country boy, and to gather 
entertainment and contentment from going with 
him everywhere and watching what he was doing. 
Especially was the stranger’s interest aroused when 
Dannie busied himself in constructing any kind of 
apparatus, even of the most simple sort. Clearly, 
though all his plans and acquired knowledge of pro- 
cesses were a blank, his natural inclination re- 
mained, prompting him to keen interest in every- 
thing that was being constructed by the employment 
of tools. He could not always understand, yet he 
was none the less fascinated. 

The first thing that Dannie constructed, partly 
for his own and his comrade’s pleasure, and partly to 
enlist the good will of the carpenters, was a useful 
and peculiar nail-barrel. This was simply a small 
wooden drum revolving on an axis between two up- 
right standards. The little barrel or drum consisted 
of twelve drawers, each drawer being beveled 
to a point at the axis, and incapable of being drawn 
out except when the barrel was facing the work- 
man. Then the drawer sought pushed itself out 
automatically, exposing its supply to the workman’s 


58 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


hand, and was drawn in and closed automatically as 
the barrel was revolved a notch further. The 
drawers being marked for and filled with the differ- 
ent sizes of nails, a workman could carry the 
little contrivance to any point about the building, 
set it down and whirl the barrel over to the number 
he desired and_out came the drawer with the nails 
exposed, the drawer being drawn in and closed auto- 
matically as the barrel was turned farther over to 
expose nails of another size. This curious action 
of the nail-drawers was compelled by the pressure 
of a spring and a cammed wheel, fastened to one 
of the upright standards at the end of the bar- 
rel. 

The thing was simple enough and crude in a way, 
but it gave Dannie and Mute immense satisfaction 
and pleased the carpenters, especially Jason Porter, 
the gray-haired foreman. After that Dannie had 
the free possession of a work-bench and of any tool 
that he cared to use. 

His next attempt was the construction of a 
bicycle-wheelbarrow, his thought being to make a 
barrow with two wheels, one some two feet behind 
the other, so that the load should rest entirely upon 
the wheels instead of partly upon the person who 


AN IMPORTANT CAPTURE 59 

pushed the vehicle, as with the barrow commonly 
used. The chief difficulty he encountered lay in 
contriving a means of easily guiding the two- 
wheeled harrow to the right or left. This he over- 
came by placing the rear wheel on a swinging 
swivel, and by making the handles of the convey- 
ance somewhat longer than is usual, and curving 
them upward for the hands. 

The new wheelbarrow was voted a great success, 
and Uncle Uathan began to look upon his nephew 
with admiration and concern. Surely this young 
relative of his had capabilities undreamed of before. 
Uncle Nathan began to suspect, though he did not 
yet openly acknowledge it, that possibly his nephew 
might have mental gifts entitling him to a career 
not quite so plodding as the tilling of the soil. By 
times he found in his mind glimmerings of the no- 
tion that some time Dannie ought to he sent away 
to a school where mechanics were taught, or some- 
how put in the way of developing his inventive 
talent. 

However, neither Dannie nor his uncle could 
possibly fancy the strange way in which this path 
was finally to be entered. Each one’s natural gifts 
in great part determine his or her destiny, but 


60 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


events are powerful factors, and events wrought 
strangely in the fate of Dannie Dool. 

As for Mute Marvel, as they presently called 
him, the weeks went by and no tidings came or any 
one in search of him. This fact was much talked 
of in all that region. The youth grew sprightlier 
and less pale, though his general health had seemed 
but little impaired from the first. Then there came 
a fortunate change, and, very oddly, it was appar- 
ently born of the spoon-hook and the great muskal- 
longe. 

Early one morning, so early indeed that no one 
else had wakened, Dannie aroused Mute and helped 
him into his clothes, and with whisperings and 
beckoning motions bade the stranger follow him. 
They passed out silently through the yard and down 
across the fields to the little lake. Darkness was 
melting on the face of the land, dissolving into 
vague grays and blues,, and overhead stars receded 
into pale nothingness. Dannie carried on his 
shoulder Luke’s steel fishing-rod, a fine tool indeed, 
furnished with a self-acting reel and nearly two 
hundred feet of stoutest twisted silk line. At the 
end of the line was a patent spoon, glittering and 
masking a strong and most vicious-looking hook. 


AN IMPORTANT CAPTURE 


61 


As Dannie glanced at it from time to time lie 
thrilled with thoughts of the old and famous muskal- 
longe. He had caught several small muskallonge 
from the waters of the lake, and bass, that surged 
on the line sufficient to awaken in him very decided 
emotions. But that had been done with minnows 
and an ordinary hook; here was an implement that 
seemed to talk of mightier game. Luke, who was 
good-natured and fond of the boy, had presented 
him with the strange hook, and had laughingly 
added that if Dannie caught the “ king musky/’ as 
they called the noted fish, then the line and rod 
would probably remain with the hook. Therefore, 
Dannie’s ambition was a very intense and robust 
affair. 

As they arrived at the lake’s edge a great dome of 
pale gold was lifting in the east, and filmy, yellowish 
glimmerings were creeping across the smooth water. 
Dew, hanging everywhere in cold drops on the weeds 
and grass-blades, flashed suddenly in the wide wash 
of light and the whole region seemed strewn with 
gems. Mute stopped when they came to the 
wrecked Marvel , as he always did when they passed 
it, and looked curiously at it. 

Often during those days Dannie observed the 


62 


TWO YOUNG INVENTOES 


strange youth make an odd and pathetic movement 
with his hands. He would place the ends of his 
fingers on his forehead and draw his hands down 
across his face with an outward movement, as one 
might in brushing away a cobweb or clinging veil 
of some sort. He made this movement now as he 
looked down upon the boat. Dannie, too, felt much 
like making the same attempt to clear his mental 
faculties relative to the mystery of the curious, 
broken apparatus inside the little craft. If Mute 
presently got well, and should regain the faculty of 
memory, no doubt the mystery of the boat would be 
made clear. But would he ever get well? 

Dannie took Mute’s hand and drew him onward 
and presently they came to the rowboat. It was 
an old and rather small affair, but was safe enough 
for so small and calm a body of water, the lake 
being less than a mile in length and from a quarter 
to a half mile in width. 

It was one of thousands of lakes that gem the 
center and northern half of the great State, pellucid 
and tiny seas in a vast, green land. 

At sight of the rowboat Mute’s eyes glistened 
and a smile moved his features pleasantly. He 
looked at Dannie expectantly. Twice before they 


AN IMPORTANT CAPTURE 


63 


had been out in the boat, and though the stranger 
seemed to have forgotten much of his evident skill 
with oars, he learned quickly and was as pleased as 
a child enjoying a new toy. 

Dannie now placed the oars in the locks and 
motioned his comrade to the seat, and the tall 
boy sat down to the blades and moved the boat 
slowly outward. Dannie knelt in the stern and 
flung the bright spoon upon the water. Forty feet 
of line spun out from the reel, then he checked it, 
and, with every nerve on edge, sat silently watching 
the spoon as it whirled and glittered through the 
water behind them. 

A thin, creamy mist, so shallow and vague that it 
was scarcely distinguishable, mantled the surface of 
the lake. Into this ethereal scum of light little 
fish here and there leaped after insects, and now 
and again a finny creature of considerable size 
sprang into view, flashed its wet sides in the growing 
rose-hues of the dawn, and disappeared. Dannie 
scarcely noticed them. His eyes intently followed 
the twirling, glittering, fantastic journey of the 
spoon. Mute looked about him, enraptured with 
the flowering glory of the summer morn. 

Suddenly the spoon dipped and the line tugged. 


64 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


A thrill swept through Dannie’s nerves, a some- 
thing that seemed half frost and half fire. He 
caught his breath with a gasp, but the hook only 
dragged and the next moment loosened and began 
to dance along the surface again. It had fouled 
with a bunch of floating weeds. Dannie sighed au- 
dibly and adjusted himself anew to his position. 
The youth at the oars, hearing Dannie*s queer gasp, 
looked round at him questioningly, then rowed 
slowly onward, gazing about at the rosy w&ter and 
the green slopes yellowing with morning. 

They passed down to the lower end of the lake 
and turned back along the west shore. Half way 
back they passed a slope that jutted out into the 
water, fringed with a low thicket of rushes. Dan- 
nie noted the rushes, and fancying that the great fish 
might be lying in their shadow, swayed the rod to- 
ward the marge so that the trailing hook might 
dance through the edge of the shadow as it passed. 
As he watched he noted a very faint wave move out- 
ward from beneath the rushes. His muscles tight- 
ened. 

The muskallonge has been called the “ shark of 
the unsalted seas.” Considering how terrible he is 
to the smaller fish and how savagely he fights for life 


AN IMPORTANT CAPTURE 


65 


when the angler has hooked him, no doubt the term 
is merited. What the tarpon is to fishers in 
Florida waters and the leaping tuna to Pacific Coast 
anglers is the mighty muskallonge to those who fish 
the lakes of the Northwest. Without question he is 
the greatest game fish in North American waters. 
The trout, the pike, the bass, may thrill the line 
and the fisherman’s heart, but when the reel spins 
and burns with the mad plunges of a full-grown 
muskallonge all other creatures that clothe them- 
selves in scales are forgotten. In that hour the 
muskallonge is an instrument of sensation, a gleam- 
ing bow that plays a tune on a man’s nerves never 
to be forgotten. 

Dannie’s nerves had twanged pleasantly to the 
tug of two or three small ones ; what would it be like 
to feel the king of them all at the end of the line? 
His fingers twitched slightly, the pupils of his eyes 
darkened and his breath came in long, slow suspira- 
tions as he watched the shining spoon. Suddenly 
the whirling lure plunged out of sight and a tug 
came up the line that all but tore the steel rod from 
his hold. Something went over him from head to 
foot like a shower of delicious cold, a flood of some- 
thing that was part fear, part joy, and part savagery. 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


Instantly he gave the rod a strong whip upward to 
set the hook, for he knew infallibly that the “ king ” 
was on. A note came from his lips that was half 
gasp and half shout, and he bent the rod off-shore 
with all his might to keep the fish from flying to the 
shelter of the tangled rushes. But the mad 
swimmer on the painful barb swept toward the 
rushes entirely heedless of the straining rod. At 
the edge of the rushes he stopped an instant and 
shook the hook as a terrier might shake a rat, then, 
as if fearful of what might occur in the shallow 
water, the great fish turned and charged for deep 
water. 

He went straight and with the speed of a rocket, 
the stout cord cutting through the clear liquid like 
a knife and hissing as it flew. Dannie, bathed all 
over in a rapturous chill, leaned back and held on 
to the rod while the line spun through the guide- 
rings and the reel hummed. 

“ Bow out! Bow out! ” he shouted to Mute with- 
out turning his head. 

With Dannie’s first cry the youth on the seat had 
stopped rowing and turned around. A look of sur- 
prise, of wonder, of straining after the meaning of it 
all, shone in his face. But clearly he did not com- 


AN IMPORTANT CAPTURE 


67 


prehend. He sat erect and silent, his eyes following 
the outward-flying line, the oars idle. 

“ Row out ! Row out ! ” Dannie again shouted 
appealingly, but the oarsman did not respond. His 
hands gripped the oars but his gaze clung to the 
swiftly advancing point where the line cut the water. 

Suddenly the reel twanged to the last inch, the 
line was entirely out and the rod all but went from 
Dannie’s fingers with the shock. He lunged for- 
ward with his breast across the stern-board and 
reached the rod out as far as he could, but 
clung fast, fairly praying that the line might not 
break. 

The fish, checked by the fierce pull upon its 
mouth, went downward and then apparently turned 
and shot straight upward. The water was now 
mantled with crimson, a carpet of thin translucent 
red, spread upon it by the rising sun. Into that 
transfiguring glory they saw the monster fish arise. 
He came up out of the water like something thrown 
by an explosion, wet, gleaming, four feet in length. 
He seemed to turn end for end in the air then smote 
the lake with a resounding slap and disappeared. 

Down with the great fellow the line went, hissing 
and slicing the rosy fluid in flashing curves. The 


68 


TWO YOUNG INVENTOKS 


boat began to drag outward to deep water; Dannie, 
now bathed as in some strange sort of fire, clung to 
the rod and shouted for Mute to row outward be- 
fore the line parted. But the young stranger paid 
not the least attention to the fiercely shouted orders ; 
he simply stood up and beat his right fist into the 
palm of his left hand and mumbled incoherent 
things, intently watching the wild flashing to and fro 
of the line. He seemed unconsciously struggling on 
the verge of memory, to catch vague glimpses of old 
experiences and of the meaning of present things; 
still, though strangely excited, he could not clearly 
comprehend. Dannie cried to him again and again, 
but it was of no use; the boat moved out near the 
center of the little lake by the sheer pull of the 
giant muskallonge, and there the wild battle was 
fought. 

Before ten minutes had passed perspiration was 
dripping from the point of Dannie’s chin. He was 
swept with cold thrills as the mighty fish plunged 
and surged on the line, yet somehow he was de- 
liciously hot. Mentally he was shut within a kind of 
spell, a clear and intoxicating delirium of concentra- 
tion, that utterly shut out everything beyond the 
boat and some two acres of water about him. The 


AN IMPORTANT CAPTURE 


piercing whistle of larks came down to him from the 
fields, cattle clanked bells and lowed on the soft 
slopes, crows called harshly from distant fence- 
stakes, the sad, weird, wolfish cry of a loon came 
from the northern end of the lake, but Dannie heard 
nothing. His heart hammered loudly in his breast, 
pulses that he had never felt before beat in his 
throat, in his ears, and in the roof of his mouth, but 
he was not really conscious of them; his whole soul 
was centered on the monster that swept wildly to 
and fro in the mysterious world that spread beneath 
him. By times he caught vague glimpses of the 
racing fish, ten, fifteen, twenty feet down in the 
crystal bed of water, a rushing, willowy shadow, 
somewhat like a muskallonge but seemingly a rod 
in length. In such moments he caught his breath 
and thrilled down to his toes. 

Round and round and to and fro the muskallonge 
swept and surged, a huge and living arrow shot from 
the bow of fear and nature’s self -preserving law; 
a gleaming arrow that would have sped straight 
away through its fluid realm but that a straining 
cord always drew it back, a boy’s trembling fingers 
clung always to a steel rod, and always a coiled 
spring in a reel turned backward, drawing in and 


10 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


rolling up the cord. There was never a moment’s 
cessation of that tiresome, irritating pull. 

Could the great fish have once found the line slack 
and thrown his body across it, no doubt the cord 
would have snapped; could he have gotten it in his 
mouth his sharp teeth would have cut the silken 
cable like a knife, but the wiry line always pulled 
back and upward, taut and straining, sharply lifted 
by the rod in Dannie’s hands and the lightning-like 
revulsion of the reel whenever resistance slackened. 
The fight was one of endurance, human pluck, and 
will-power pitted against long-enduring brute-terror 
and rage; above, in the boat, Dannie, bent on con- 
quest, below, the mighty fish, a beautiful savage 
from whom all small fish flew in terror, fighting 
now for his own life. 

Circles and circles, upward ascending spirals, 
swift criss-cross and headlong downward plunges, 
straight rushes outward and the boat rocking and 
dragging, once again in the golden morning air with 
mouth wide and wet sides gleaming, again headlong 
to the bottom and away on a wide circle, straight 
across under the boat like a flying bolt and out again 
in the air for an instant, then once more downward 
and hurling to and fro in mad endeavor, so the 


AN IMPORTANT CAPTURE 71 

snared monarch of the crystal under-kingdom tore 
and strained and battled. 

To Dannie it seemed the struggle would never 
end; ten minutes, twenty, thirty, an hour went by, 
still he clung to the ceaselessly bending rod, lifting, 
curbing, guiding, whipping to right or left, strain- 
ing backward, falling forward, jerking sharply, eas- 
ing away again, his eyes forever following the tough 
twine as it hissed and cut through the water. Up 
from below, through the twanging silk came as by 
telegraph every motion and emotion of the angry 
fighter: though they were sometimes two hundred 
feet apart, the hoy and the fish were as one, each 
felt the other as if the consciousness were pricked 
into their hearts with needles. Dannie made no 
outcry; his teeth were set, his brows drawn together 
in a knot, his nostrils distended, the knuckles of his 
tanned hands were white, his biceps cramped, his 
knees ached, hut pain and time and weariness were 
as nothing; Dannie was an American boy, and to 
conquer was everything. 

Throughout the struggle the young stranger 
plainly experienced many degrees and changes of 
excitement. Sometimes he stood up, again he sat 
down, his fingers worked nervously, he constantly 


72 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


tried to talk. At length he pulled an oar from its 
lock and lifted it half across his shoulder as if to 
strike, apparently a settled purpose in his mind. 
Still the minutes slipped away, another half hour 
had gone, they had fought outward and northward 
until they were nearly half a mile from the point of 
first struggle. The great muskallonge was tiring. 
He had swum many miles, fiercely pulling against 
pounds of resistance. He was yielding. Dannie, 
white and faint, hut with no thought of giving up, 
slowly brought the big fish toward the boat. At 
length the savage swimmer lay almost within reach, 
slowly swaying his long body, his eyes as red and 
evil-looking as a mad dog’s, his sharp-toothed jaws 
working. 

" Hit him! ” gasped Dannie, “ hit him! ” 

Already Mute was poising the oar for the blow, 
but ere the oar descended the monarch leaped. The 
side of the boat thudded and water went over the 
boys in drenching measure. Downward and out- 
ward the muskallonge plunged, but the stout twist 
held, and again the fight was on. Through another 
fifteen minutes the mad rushes, the surging and 
plunging, continued, then again Dannie brought the 
great quarry to the side of the boat. As the big 



“Hit him ! ” gasped Dannie, “hit hm !” — Page 72 . 


































AN IMPORTANT CAPTURE 


78 


fish swayed there, savage, wicked-eyed, hut whipped, 
like a flash Mute brought the oar down upon its 
head. There was a wild splash and twist and then 
— the golden sunshine smote the monster’s silvery 
belly. 

“ Hold him ! Hold him! ” burst from Mute’s lips, 
and he leaped over the boat’s side into the water, 
and with the next second his right hand was 
clenched in one of the fish’s wide gills. Dannie, 
breathless and dizzy, lunged face downward across 
the thwarts and seized the great prize about the 
body. 

“ He’s stunned — lift him — lift him ! ” he mut- 
tered, scarcely able to speak. 

The boat keeled over until it dipped water from 
the lake, and, lifting together they rolled the mighty 
muskallonge over the depressed bow and saw it slip 
down the curved ribs and sprawl upon the bottom, 
an amazing, glittering thing. 

Mute scrambled back into the boat. “ It’s a fish 
— a fish — a fish!” he exclaimed ecstatically. “I 
know what it is now! I talk — I talk — I know now! 
A fish! A fish! ” He laughed joyously, insanely, 
and clapped his hands together. 

Dannie lay back in the stern of the boat, crumpled 


74 two rouNo inventobs 

and white as new muslin. He clutched his breast 
with both hands, struggling hard for breath, and 
peered at his comrade with strange eyes. He 
looked to be dying, and still he peered curiously at 
the boy who could talk, who danced and rocked the 
boat and laughed. 

Two hours and ten minutes of fiercest strain had 
floored Dannie. Por a few moments he swung 
on the green-gray verge of a dead faint, then the 
color began to return to his ashen face and presently 
he sat up. He swayed and trembled through a few 
breaths, then looked at the great thing he had con- 
quered, then at Mute, then he, too, broke into laugh- 
ter, laughter mingled with joyous shouts. 


CHAPTER Y 


BRINGING HOME THE PRIZE 

With the lapse of the fourth minute after the 
muskallonge tumbled down upon the boat’s bot- 
tom, Dannie drove the light craft on the low marge 
near the wrecked Marvel. Together the boys 
leaped out and dragged the boat entirely from the 
water, and the reign of “ king musky ” was defi- 
nitely ended. 

Dannie dropped down on the flat of his back and 
spread his aching arms wide on the grass. Pale and 
utterly exhausted, he lay for a time with his eyes 
closed, slowly rolling his head to and fro and labor- 
ing for breath. Deep in his consciousness several 
things were stirring: Elation that he had hooked 
and landed the greatest fish ever taken in all that 
region, a vague and mournful sort of regret that a 
creature so strong and masterful should have been 
thus conquered, and, deeper than both of these feel- 
ings, joy and surprise at hearing the young stranger 
75 


76 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


talk. Now he would know who his companion was 
and whence he came, now surely the mystery would 
end. 

He sat up presently, holding fast the grass on 
either side of him to steady himself and look at his 
comrade. Mute was bending over the edge of the 
boat, gazing down at the big fish and laughing and 
chattering gleefully. He straightened himself and 
looked smilingly down at the sward. Suddenly he 
stamped it with his foot and cried, 11 Grass! grass! 
I know — grass! ” He looked at the lake, an im- 
movable mirror reflecting sun and clouds, and 
shouted, u Water! I know — I know now! ” Then 
his eyes lit upon the shattered Marvel , lying near 
by, and a gleam of surprise and recognition shot 
across his face. He leaped at it eagerly. u My 
boat!” he cried; “ why — why — how came it so? 
Who broke my boat ? ” He looked all about him 
curiously and in questioning distress. Clearly he 
could not yet exercise the faculty of memory, save 
such partial use of it as lay in recognition of that 
which was directly before him. 

Dannie, weak but feeling his strength returning 
with each moment, arose and went to his side. 
“ The boat is yours, you say? From what place did 


BRINGING HOME THE PRIZE 


77 


you come in it? Where did you start from?” he 
asked. 

The tall youth gazed at him long and earnestly, 
but shook his head helplessly. “ My boat,” he said, 
“ it is broken. Who did it? ” 

“ Ho one,” replied Dannie. “ The storm did it, 
the cyclone, you know. You came here in it, all 
wound up in hay and ropes and sails and stuff. 
You got hurt, too. Don’t you remember?” 

The youth looked at Dannie again, steadily but 
vaguely. He could not remember. He drew his 
hands down across his face as if tearing away a web 
and stared before him, but to no avail; the door to 
his past was still closed and sealed. That phase of 
his injury which had induced aphasia — want of con- 
trol of the speaking organs — had become adjusted, 
but that larger mental disaster which Dr. Hammond 
had called amnesia, save in small part remained un- 
rectified. Memory in him, when pricked into activ- 
ity by the actual presence of an object, responded 
so far as to produce the name and use of the thing, 
and, sometimes, its purpose; but the larger mental 
feat of calling up and picturing absent objects and 
dead events seemed beyond him. 

He turned from Dannie and climbed into the 


78 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


Marvel. He sat down among the loosened wheels 
and jumble of apparatus and took up this and that 
and examined it. While its condition distressed 
him, obviously he recognized it all. 

“ My boat would fly,” he said; “ to-morrow I was 
going to finish it, then it would fly. Now look at 
it!” 

He arose with a broken wheel in his hand and 
gazed around at the little lake, sorely puzzled. 
Clearly he had been upon another lake, or a body 
of water of some sort, when the great storm swept 
him into its lap and carried him away; and, as 
clearly, all things that he had passed through from 
that moment until the present hour were as a blank. 
Excited by the contest with the muskallonge, mem- 
ory in him had begun, feebly, to perform its office. 
He again looked down ruefully at the broken ap- 
paratus. 

“ I made it to fly — I expected it to fly,” he said. 

“ Well, it flew all right,” exclaimed Dannie, 
laughing, though he could as easily have cried, the 
thing was so pathetic. “ Is this your name? Come 
here and look at this,” continued Dannie. 

The young stranger reluctantly climbed out of the 
boat. Dannie placed a finger on the first letter of 


BRINGING HOME THE PRIZE 79 

the word “ Marvel.” “ What does this mean?” he 
asked. “ Is this your name or just a fancy name for 
the boat ? ” 

The youth looked at it oddly for a moment. 
“M,” he cried, “ M-a-r-v-e-1! I know the letters! 
I know — I know! ” and he clapped his hands glee- 
fully. 

“ Yes, hut is it your name? Is Marvel your name 
or just the name of the boat? ” insisted Dannie. 

The handsome young fellow looked puzzled. 
“ Marvel — my boat ! I know — I know ! ” he ex- 
claimed. 

Dannie turned about with a hopeless gesture. 
“Well,” he said, “let’s get the fish to the house. 
Come on. Let’s tie its head to the middle of one of 
the oars and carry it between us. Come; I’ll show 
you how.” 

With his pocket-knife he cut a piece of rope from 
the Marvel , and obediently, though reluctantly, the 
stranger followed him over to the rowboat. Put- 
ting the rope through one of the fish’s gills and out 
of its mouth, Dannie tied the great head firmly to 
the middle of the oar. They each then put a 
shoulder under the oar, and, lifting the fish, started, 
Dannie leading the way. They were rather tall 


80 TWO YOUNG INVENTOES 

boys, but nevertheless nearly a foot of the lower 
part of the body of the muskallonge dragged on the 
grass. Strange as was the whole affair, and though 
moved with elation and wonder, the youthful owner 
of the wrecked Marvel now and again glanced back 
over his shoulder at the boat, as if touched with 
affection and the fragmentary glimmerings of some 
old dream. 

The way home seemed a long one and several 
times they rested, but when they entered the yard 
through the back gate Dannie’s face was fairly white 
with glory and he stepped very high. Despite him- 
self he could not restrain a yell of triumph. Mute, 
too, began to shout and laugh. 

Uncle Nathan and the men were just starting for 
the fields and the carpenters had begun work on the 
house, but, for the time being, all tasks were for- 
gotten. Such cries and exclamations surely were 
never before heard in the vicinity of the Harp 
dwelling. Few victors returning from far countries 
and achievements of arms ever were received with 
warmer acclaim. Each youth was hammered on the 
back by the men and vociferously praised and con- 
gratulated; Aunt Sarah and the two maids flung up 
their hands at sight of the great fish, half in wonder, 


BRINGING HOME THE PRIZE 


81 


half in fear of it; the cook, a large, red-cheeked 
woman whose very smile seemed to exhale savors 
of toothsome food, beamed and rubbed her fat hands 
together. Old Flaps barked hoarsely. 

“ Mv ! when he’s stuffed and baked won’t he make 
a fine dish! My! My! ” cried the cook. “ We’ll 
have to cut him in three parts though, for we ain’t 
got a roastin’ pan big enough to hold him as he is 
now. My! My! ” 

A small standard scale stood near the granary 
door. Uncle Nathan and Luke lifted the muskal- 
longe and laid it upon the weighing platform. The 
others clustered around, expectant and hazarding 
many guesses as to the weight of the fish. 

“ Fifty-six pounds,” said Uncle Nathan; “ he 
pulls down just fifty-six.” 

“ Fifty-six pounds!” shouted Luke, and began 
dancing a clog; “ the biggest fish ever caught in 
the county, I’ll bet! The spoon-hook did the busi- 
ness, it turned the trick! ” 

“ Yes,” said Uncle Nathan, “ this is probably the 
biggest muskallonge ever caught in the State or, 
maybe, in the Northwest. What do you think, 
Jason? ” 

The gray foreman of the carpenters cleared his 


82 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


throat and reflected a moment. “ Yes, Nathan, I 
guess the boys have broken the record. Fve been 
knockin’ around the Northwest for twenty years and 
I never saw or heard of a muskallonge quite so big. 
Jim Taylor, over at Long Lake, in Wisconsin, landed 
one that weighed forty-three pounds, I was told. 
Some folks claimed that Jim had knocked the record, 
but these kids have certain gone him a number of 
pounds better. Anyhow, I bid for two helpin’s of 
the fish when it’s cooked.” 

“ 1 speak for three plates of it,” cried Luke, 
nearly breathless from dancing, “ and the spoon- 
hook, the line, the reel and pole, go to the boys. 
They take the bouquet and the cake — the bakery 
and the hot-house belong to them! Hurrah! ” 
Everybody was laughing save Uncle Nathan. 
He sat on a box quietly looking at the mighty fish. 
“ Seems to me it would be a pity to cook and eat 
such a splendid creature as that,” he remarked. 
“ Instead, it ought to be preserved in some way. 
What do they call the fellers who stuff birds and 
animals and such things? Somehow T forget. It 
begins with tax — I can remember the tax all right — 
but what’s the balance of the name ? ” 

“ Taxidermist, I guess is the name,” said Dannie. 


BRINGING HOME THE PRIZE 


83 


“ Hurrah ! ” cried Luke, hitting Dannie on the 
back, “ you’re both a fisherman and a scholar! ” 

“ Yes, taxidermist,” said LTncle Nathan. “ Now, 
we ought to have one of them chaps treat the fish, 
stuff and varnish it, and fix it on a polished oak 
plank, and then we could hang it on the wall of the 
new dinin’ room, or we might present it to the State 
Historical Society over to the capital.” 

Luke made a comical wry face. “ Now, boss, 
this won’t do,” he said, “ here you’re goin’ to have 
the fish stuffed instead of stuffing us with the fish! 
What do you say, son? ” turning to Dannie. “ Are 
you goin’ to let us be ‘ trun down ’ like this? ” 

Dannie skuffed the ground with his heel for 
a moment and looked down. “ Well,” he said, “ I’m 
not going to eat any of this fish. I like the taste of 
fish well enough, but I don’t want any of this one. 
You folks can, if you want to, but I’d rather not.” 

“ Why ? 99 they chorused, looking at him. 

“ Oh, I don’t hardly know why. It’s bad enough 
to kill such a thing as that — I don’t feel like eating 
any of it. Come on, Mute, let’s wash our hands 
and faces. I’m hungry, but not for fish.” 

“ Very well, then, we’ll have the taxidermist fix 
the muskallonge so it can be preserved. It cer- 


84 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


tainly ought to be saved/’ said Uncle Uathan. 
“ There’s plenty of other things to eat without de- 
stroying such a grand specimen as this. Amos, you 
hitch the light team to the spring wagon and take 
the fish over to Sidwell. Have Simmons pack it in 
ice, at the meat-market. Tell him I’m goin’ to send 
it to St. Paul, or somewhere, to have it stuffed. I’ll 
go over this evening and see Doc Hammond and the 
principal of the school — what’s his name? Yes, 
Gregson. I think one or the other of them will 
know who to send the fish to. Ho, Luke, you can’t 
go along. You’d probably stop at some house on 
the road and have the muskallonge cooked and try 
to eat the whole of it ! ” 

Luke kicked up his heels and made a facial 
grimace. “ Come on, boys, we may as well go to 
work; we are euchred. Life’s gav dream is o’er; 
the boss has a heart of flint! ” Laughing and chaf- 
fing, the hired men started for the fields, the car- 
penters also went to their task. 

“ Towel — towel,” said the young stranger, as he 
and Dannie dried their faces. “ House — pump — 
barn,” he continued, looking about him. 

Uncle Uathan and Aunt Sarah, hearing these 
spoken words, turned in surprise. The youth had 


BRINGING HOME THE PRIZE 


85 


stood outside the group, silent and shy. He glanced 
toward the elderly couple now and blushed, yet 
clearly he was happy and pleased with himself. At 
once Uncle Nathan and Mrs. Harp began to question 
him about his past. They made, however, no better 
progress than had Dannie; the boy could remember 
only such things as were immediately about him, 
and sometimes faltered in recalling the names of 
those. Still, the lad’s condition was obviously im- 
proved, manifestly there was hope. Uncle Nathan 
and his good wife were greatly pleased. 

“ He began talking when we were trying to get 
the muskallonge into the boat,” said Dannie. “ He 
just burst right out, ’cause he was so excited, I 
guess.” 

“ Yes, things that make his brain work fast are 
good for him, I reckon. Doc said as much,” re- 
marked Uncle Nathan. “ You better set him to 
helpin’ you on some kind of an invention, if you can; 
looks like it would be good medicine for him. It’s 
strange we don’t hear anything from his folks or 
anybody; I can’t understand it. Well, maybe it ’ll 
come out all right after a while. Yes, drive right 
up here, Amos. We will do the muskallonge up 
in a wet blanket and lay him on some hay in the 


86 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


wagon so he won’t be in the snn. Dannie, yon and 
the boy might pnll some pie-plant from the garden 
— get a lot of the big leaves — and cover the fish 
with them to help keep him cool. Be sure, Amos, 
an’ tell Simmons to pack the fish in ice. Tell him 
I’ll be over to town this evening. Stop at Jackson’s 
hardware store and bring out a couple of kegs of 
nails for Jason. Jason will tell you the size he wants. 
I must get right out to the field now. Dannie, when 
you’ve had breakfast you better get into the shade 
somewhere and take a rest. You look purty 
shaky,” and the busy farmer strode away to his 
work. 

After they had eaten breakfast Dannie and Mute 
went out and stretched themselves upon the grass 
under a locust tree west of the new house. Most of 
the trees had been swept away by the cyclone, a few 
remaining standing along the fence next to the high- 
way. Being very weary, Dannie soon lapsed into 
slumber, yet even in his sleep the matter of the great 
muskallonge made itself felt. At times his hands 
clenched and he seemed tugging at some object, 
while his breath came unevenly and hard. 

The young stranger lay perfectly still for a time, 
looking up at the green leaves above them with wide, 


BRINGING HOME THE PRIZE 


87 


steady eyes. At length he quietly arose and made 
off toward the southeast, disappearing over the soft 
swell of land that fell downward to the shore of the 
lake. There by the placid body of water, in the 
afternoon Dannie found him. He was sitting in the 
Marvel , patiently trying to put together the broken 
parts of the motor. 

Evidently the curious contrivance was hopelessly 
wrecked, besides, as yet the youth’s original scheme 
of procedure seemed not to have entirely returned 
to him. His primary idea of constructing a boat 
that would fly or, at least, sail wonderfully fast, 
seemed fairly clear to him, but the means or process 
of it plainly baffled him. Fragments of the original 
conception seemed to drift in and out of his mind, 
but the thing as a whole, apparently, floated beyond 
his grasp. In a way his groping after what he evi- 
dently believed to be a great, though lost, idea was 
something pitiful to see. Dannie felt it so; he ap- 
proached the boat and stood for a time silently re- 
garding the absorbed youth. 

“ Can’t you put it together? Don’t you know 
how? ” he presently inquired. 

The youth started and looked up. A cast of con- 
fusion and appeal came into his eyes. “ I made the 


88 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


boat so it would fly — I thought maybe it would — 
but now I don’t know — I don’t know. I seem to 
forget how it was to be.” He drew his hands down 
across his face quickly as if impatiently attempting 
to clear the mist from his faculties. 

Dannie sat down upon the boat’s port thwart and 
for some time earnestly contemplated the jumbled 
interior of the craft. His own strongly-developed 
aptitude for working out mechanical processes was 
aroused. A boat that would fly! Surely a most 
extraordinary thought. The idea fired his imagina- 
tion. He knew that some ideas were practical and 
some utterly fanciful. Was not this of the latter 
class? In youth, he had heard it said, the human 
mind was prone to conceive fancies that were 
impossible of realization. Was not this flying-boat 
idea of this sort? Maybe, maybe not. Who could 
say? 

He saw that there had been a propeller of some 
kind at the rear of the boat, for a fragment or two 
still clung to a small steel shaft that extended out 
through the stern from the bent and crushed object 
which doubtless had been purposed as a motor. He 
saw, also, that upon the bottom of the boat on either 
side of the motor, were two rather long boxes with 


BRINGING HOME THE PRIZE 


89 


hinged coverings. The young stranger had thrown 
these coverings hack, and Dannie saw that the boxes 
were littered within with broken glass. Evidently 
the jars had contained chemicals; also he observed 
that the jars had been connected to the motor by 
small pipes and insulated copper wires, and that two 
pipes, much larger in size, led rearward from the 
motor and out through the stern of the boat. 

Inside the steel barrel of the motor there seemed 
to he a turbine wheel, a kind of fantastic double 
auger or something of the sort, the like of which 
Dannie had never before seen. He noted, too, that 
there were remaining, bent or broken, four upright 
posts, two at the how and two near the stern, which 
presumably had supported a canopy covering or 
sails. The bow posts were apparently of iron-wood 
or hickory, the rear posts being two-inch gas-pipe, 
one of these hollow posts being connected to the 
motor by a small iron pipe. Also, there were some 
loosened wheels in the boat, and on either side of 
the craft portions of two elbowed contrivances, work- 
ing in sockets somewhat like oar-locks. Apparently 
these had constituted the steering apparatus, though 
if these projecting parts had been equipped with re- 
volving fans or simply broad blades that might be 


90 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


turned against the water or wind, could not be de- 
termined. 

The purpose of the craft and its mechanism had 
been stated to Dannie, and, having been thus in- 
formed, when he closely inspected the affair the 
statement of the builder was easily believed, but just 
how the boat was to accomplish the feat of flying 
was to Dannie very much of a mystery. In a general 
way he guessed at the uses of the various parts, but 
the secret process of the ideas involved he could 
not quite fathom. The main conception, the thing 
attempted, was marvelous and alluring, and Dannie 
felt himself greatly interested. Ho doubt one of 
these days his queer comrade would be able to ex- 
plain the parts and processes of the boat’s mechan- 
ism in detail. Maybe he himself would be able to 
assist in repairing the boat or in the construction of 
a new one. 

Dannie stepped down into the tiny vessel and laid 
his hand on the odd, barrel-shaped object. 

“ Motor — dynamo — power? What do you call 
it?” he asked. 

“ Motor,” said the youth. 

“How does it operate? What’s in it?” Dannie 
continued. 


BRINGING HOME THE PRIZE 91 

The young inventor looked troubled and uncer- 
tain. 

Dannie doubled his fists and whirled each over the 
other rapidly, at the same time producing a hissing 
noise with his lips. 

“Like that?” he queried. 

The stranger’s eyes brightened. He also re- 
volved his fists in a circle and made a hissing noise. 
“ Yes, yes, like that,” he said. 

“Steam or gas?” asked Dannie. 

The youth shook his head; he could not re- 
member. 

Dannie climbed over the stern and stood by the 
protruding end of the shaft. “ Come here, will 
you?” he said. 

In a moment his companion was by his side. 
Dannie laid his hand upon the projecting piece of 
steel. “ Shaft ? ” he suggested. 

“ Yes, shaft — main shaft,” assented the stranger 
in a gratified tone. 

“ Well, what else was here? ” inquired Dannie. 

The tall boy shook his head almost sadly. There 
was a thin, oddly curved piece of metal adhering to 
a kind of hub on the end of the shaft. Dannie 
touched it. “ What do you call this? ” he asked. 


92 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


“ Aluminum — aluminum blade ! ” burst out the 
youth, greatly pleased with himself. 

Dannie himself looked a trifle mystified. “ Yes,” 
he said, “ I suppose it was a part of a propeller of 
some kind. What was the propeller like? How 
did it work? ” 

The stranger reflected for a time; he rubbed his 
forehead and face and looked about him helplessly, 
but could not tell. Had the object referred to been 
before him, doubtless he could have remembered. 
Dannie passed to other parts of the boat’s mechanical 
equipment with a similar result. The parts that 
had been lost or destroyed were to the stranger as if 
they had never existed. However, the motive idea 
was apparently as fresh to his mind and as dominat- 
ing as ever. Already he was trying to work out 
and mentally reconstruct the details of the main 
thought embodied in the curious boat. Would it 
all come back to him at last? And what would the 
result be ? 

Besides being both inventive and imaginative, 
Dannie was inclined to be practical. The discipline 
and training of his life had influenced him in that 
direction. He had seen a good deal of light ship- 
ping in the small harbor of the flowery valley where 


BRINGING HOME THE PRIZE 


93 


his parents had lived in the Coast country, and knew 
something of propellers and yachts and steering 
gear; he had also gone several times with his father 
to San Francisco, and, crossing to Oakland, had 
seen great war-vessels and ships from all nations 
floating in the soft blue waters of the incomparable 
harbor. Consequently, for a country boy, he had a 
rather clear notion of such things, though his 
knowledge was not by any means technical. 

The idea of a boat that would ride upon the water 
and also fly in the air appealed to his fancy much 
as an intoxicating mental liquor might; it was fairly 
dizzying. Yet, he asked himself, what particular 
use would such a craft serve? In what way, were 
such an achievement possible, would this sort of boat 
prove superior to an ordinary vessel? Doubtless 
the young inventor, now brooding over his wrecked 
creation, had had notions relative to the boat’s 
utility and would some day make those notions clear. 
Dannie could wait. 

Meantime he was not averse to studying about 
the strange craft, though, should the whole matter 
become wholly understood by himself and his com- 
rade, he doubted if there was sufficient means in 
that neighborhood to enable them to rebuild the 


94 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


apparatus. However, there were other ideas which 
Dannie wanted to explore, conceptions that were 
far simpler than those undertaken in the making of 
the boat, yet quite novel enough to afford the boys 
amusement. 


CHAPTER VI 


SOME ODD INVENTIONS 

Early the following morning Dannie began the 
delightful task of putting one of these ideas into 
form. The thing was the basis, or rather initial 
suggestion, of his famous scarecrow man. Dannie 
explained his intention to Mute, how he thought it 
would be fun to make a great windmill rattle, a 
noise-instrument that might be useful for frighten- 
ing away crows and gophers, and the like, from 
fields and gardens. Mute was at once interested; 
any statement relative to an invention aroused him. 
Together they went to work, though quite naturally 
Dannie did the larger part of the labor and con- 
triving. 

The noise-maker was quite simple, and when com- 
pleted, they set it up at the edge of a meadow not 
far from the house. The rattle consisted of a small 
wind-wheel, working a horizontal wooden shaft some 
three feet long. To the shaft they fastened four 
short leather straps and to the end of each leather 
95 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


strap a wooden ball about the size of a doorknob. 
Beneath the shaft they placed an inverted wash- 
boiler, fastened in such a position that the wooden 
balls would beat upon the tin boiler as the revolving 
shaft whirled the balls around. 

This contrivance they nailed to the top of a fence 
post, and were amused, as it began its racket, to 
see that not only gophers, but calves and colts and 
chickens, speedily took to their heels and escaped 
from its vicinity. It looked to be an excellent thing 
to set up, for instance, among cherry trees to 
frighten birds away from the fruit. 

However, Dannie thought they might be able to 
contrive something that would prove still more 
effective, so they began the construction of a re- 
markable scarecrow man. This was no less than a 
scarecrow that would clap its arms to its sides and 
yell at thieving birds and the like. Surely this were 
not so easy of accomplishment! Dannie, however, 
thought they might be equal to it. 

A bellows, some four feet in length from nozzle 
to handles, had, with other articles, been moved 
out of the tool-house when that building had be- 
come a kitchen and women’s sleeping room. 

“ My idea,” explained Dannie, “ is to fix the noz- 


SOME ODD INVENTIONS 97 

zle of the bellows so that when the air is forced 
through it will whistle or squawk, then we’ll put the 
bellows inside of a dummy man with the nozzle in- 
side the man’s head. We will have a windmill 
work the bellows, and, so, the man will whistle and 
yell and scare things generally into fits.” 

Mute was delighted. “ That will be great,” he 
said, “ but it seems as if it would be hard to do. 
You can make almost anything, though.” He re- 
garded Dannie with undisguised admiration. 

Dannie blushed. “ Oh, I don’t know — I don’t 
think I can do much, but I like the fun of trying. 
You’ve made lots greater things than I have,” he 
replied. 

The tall lad made that pathetic movement with 
his hands across his forehead and face. “ It seems 
as if I ought to know how to do things, but some- 
how I can’t understand much,” he faltered. 
“ Say,” he half whispered, catching Dannie’s arm 
and looking closely into his face, “ I don’t belong 
here, do I ? This isn’t really my home, is it ? ” 

Dannie hardly knew how to reply; it was the first 
time the stranger had exhibited this sort of in- 
terest. 

“ Well,” said Dannie evasively, “ I don’t s’pose 


98 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


this is your real, permanent home, quite, but it’s 
your home as long as you want to stay here. I'd 
like to have you stay here always; anyway, as long 
as I live with Uncle Nathan. It makes it nice for 
me. Sometime I intend to go away to a school, one 
of the schools where a fellow learns to do things 
with tools and invent things. Doctor Hammond 
was telling me about it once. Maybe if you stay 
here a while we can go together.” 

The stranger looked at him mistily, but steadily, 
for a moment. “ Do you know who I am?” he 
asked, with a note of entreaty in his tone. “ Pm 
not your brother, am I? ” 

“ I know you — I know you real well, it seems 
like, but I don’t know your real name or — or where 
you came from,” Dannie admitted reluctantly. “ I 
wish you were my brother,” he added. “ We’ll just 
play you are; it’s ’most as nice, anyhow.” 

The young stranger looked about him at the build- 
ings and abroad over the vast, rolling reaches of 
land. For almost the first time he seemed to experi- 
ence a strong sense of isolation, of removal from 
familiar scenes. 

“ It’s strange — it’s queer that I don’t know who I 
am,” he muttered. 


SOME ODD INVENTIONS 


99 


“We found you down on the lake in the boat — 
your hying boat. There was a cyclone, an awful 
cyclone, the biggest storm ever in this country, I 
guess,” said Dannie. “ I suppose the cyclone 
brought you to the lake. Don’t you remember 
where you were when the cyclone struck? ” 

His strange companion slowly shook his head. 
“ What is a cyclone? ” 

Dannie saw the difficulties of the case. If the 
youth could not remember the cyclone it was hardly 
probable that he could remember beyond it. Dan- 
nie made widely revolving motions with his arms. 
“ A cyclone,” he said, “ is a wind, a fearful wind, 
and clouds as big — as big as a township! And the 
whole thing whirls around like lightning and tears 
things to pieces.” 

Mute looked impressed but mystified. “ Must be 
grand,” he said, “ I’d like to see one. Well, let’s 
make the squalling man.” 

Dannie assented, wondering if his comrade would 
ever again come into the full use of his faculties. 

Through the better part of ten days they worked 
on the “ man,” finding the task indeed difficult. 
The internal treatment of the bellows’ nozzle so that 
it would give out sounds when air was forced 


100 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


through it, proved to he a hard spot in the scheme. 
After a number of attempts, however, the difficulty 
was overcome by soldering a tin tomato can over the 
nozzle. Inside the empty can they fastened a num- 
ber of tongues of tin, scraped very thin, and so 
arranged that the air in rushing from the nozzle 
would vibrate the tongues. Within the outer open- 
ing of the can they then glued the necks of four 
bottles, each of a different size and tipped to opposite 
angles. When this unheard-of contrivance had 
been fastened over the bellows’ nozzle, and the 
handles of the bellows were sharply compressed, the 
noise given out was something to stir the hair on a 
listener’s scalp. The sound was a mingled roar and 
squawk and wail. Even the inventors themselves 
were at first fairly frightened by it. However, the 
thing was voted a success and the work proceeded. 

They ne^t hewed out a rough head, a head that 
was big and apparently combined the most salient 
features of the Indian, the bulldog, and the orang- 
outang. The boys were anything but accomplished 
sculptors and the result was naturally both amazing 
and fierce. A liberal treatment of the head with 
black and red paint added perceptibly to the hideous- 
ness of the creation. The face looked sufficient to 


SOME ODD INVENTIONS 


101 


frighten creatures from its vicinity without aid from 
the “ squawker.” However, the completed scare- 
crow was presently set up, and after two or three 
defective spots in its mechanism had been doctored 
up it proceeded to “ work.” 

The “ man ” was very large and stood upon a box 
with his back against a tall post. The bellows, with 
handles down and nozzle up inside the head, formed 
the main part of the body. One of Uncle Nathan’s 
old overcoats covered the bellows, the sleeves being 
drawn down over the handles of the bellows. Be- 
low the ragged overcoat swayed trousers and boots 
stuffed with straw. A battered hat rested jauntily 
on the hideous head. Above, fastened securely to 
the top of the post, was a wind wheel, capable of 
exercising considerable force A crank, fastened to 
the end of the shaft turned by the wind wheel, oper- 
ated the bellows through the pressure of an ingeni- 
ous series of levers. The result was that each time 
the bellows handles closed, the scarecrow man auto- 
matically clapped his arms against his sides and let 
out a most startling cry from his wooden lips. 

The thing was certainly effective. The results 
produced by the windmill rattle were tame beside 
the effects of this engine of fright. All pilfering 


102 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


birds and animals drew a long way off, and with 
them went some creatures that were entirely wel- 
come about the premises. 

Old Flaps, obviously feeling that his business of 
frightening unwelcome creatures away from the 
Harp home had been trespassed upon, had to be 
chained up in order to keep him from chewing the 
deceitful legs off the scarecrow man. The carpen- 
ters and the field hands laughed immoderately over 
the shouting dummy and Uncle Nathan declared 
that it ought to be patented. 

However, the scarecrow man had one serious 
defect — when the wind ceased to blow he ceased to 
flap his arms and squawk. Also, with the fall of 
darkness some one had to throw the windmill out of 
gear in order to restrain the noisy fellow from keep- 
ing everybody awake throughout the night, that is, 
did a stiff breeze happen to be blowing. On several 
occasions, the evening being calm and the scarecrow 
quiet, no one thought to put the wheel out of gear, 
then, the wind having risen in the night, the scare- 
crow man suddenly woke up and began whooping and 
squawking, which was anything but pleasant for 
those who cared to sleep. 

The ultimate verdict seemed to be that the shout- 


SOME ODD INVENTIONS 103 

ing scarecrow was an ingenious creation, but not 
entirely a practical success. 

After that Dannie and his comrade essayed the 
construction of the sailing-wagon. That, too, was a 
success, but not altogether practical. They took 
the running-gear of a buggy that had been wrecked 
in the cyclone, and, putting it in passable order, laid 
a deck over the wheels and in this deck set up a 
stout mast. Rigging the mast with a boom and 
sail, and fixing a steering wheel at the rear with 
ropes reaching forward and controlling the front 
axle, they rolled the wheeled boat down into a big 
meadow near the lake and spread the sail. There 
happened to be a spanking breeze sweeping across 
Camass Prairie upon the afternoon in which they 
gave the sailing car its first trial, and they experi- 
enced a memorable ride. 

Scarcely had they spread sail before the contriv- 
ance set off across the meadow at a clipping rate, 
the canvas bulging like a rounded cheek and the 
buggy wheels fairly humming. Dannie sat at the 
steering wheel while Mute held the sheet. It was 
at once manifest that the young stranger had more 
knowledge of sailing craft than was possessed by 
Dannie. The latter bungled the steering badly at 


104 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


times while the young stranger exhibited consider- 
able skill in handling the sail. Several times had 
*he not luffed her promptly they would have capsized. 

The sailing car had one capital defect: They had 
forgotten to attach a brake for the wheels. Had 
they foreseen that a brake was a prime necessity no 
doubt the final catastrophe might have been avoided. 
As it was, they really had but little control of 
the wild affair. However, sailing about the big 
meadow was great fun; careering around in long, 
sweeping circles, turning sharply, often on two 
wheels, to keep from running into a fence or plung- 
ing headlong into the lake, was not half bad. Most 
of the time the boys were laughing and shouting 
and ducking their heads to clear the swaying boom. 
Mute kept crying out orders half of which, at least, 
Dannie did not understand. 

At the very beginning of this extraordinary voy- 
age some young horses that were feeding in the 
meadow tore away across the green sward and 
jumped over a fence into an adjoining field, snort- 
ing in fright at the ridiculous boat. A small herd 
of milch cows, commonly as docile as dogs, also got 
over a fence in terror of this unheard-of thing and 
made off to a region of fancied safety. Old Flaps, 


SOME ODD INVENTIONS 


105 


who had come down to the meadow with the boys, 
betook himself to the brow of a near-by slope and 
sat down on his haunches and howled. No doubt, 
in his dim old brain pricked the notion that his 
young masters were trifling with fate and the laws 
of life, which, in a way, was true. 

Nevertheless the sport, though fraught with 
danger, was very exhilarating. At times they liter- 
ally “ went like the wind.” Had the breeze been 
a mild one there would have been far less peril. As 
it was the wind increased until it was well-nigh a 
gale and the car went careening around the great 
meadow like a mad thing. 

Several things had to be avoided: a reedy slough 
at the north end of the lake, a long ditch that led 
into the slough, and a jumble of fallen trees, left 
by the cyclone, along the west shore of the lake. 
Westward from the fallen trees and extending a 
little north of the water, the meadow spread out 
seventy or eighty acres in extent. Around and 
around this smooth expanse they flew, laughing and 
crying out in glee. Mute’s gray eyes were wide 
and glowing and his wavy hair flying; Dannie’s soft, 
brown eyes looked black and shining, his face a trifle 
pale. From the first his ideas relative to the steer- 


106 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


ing had been somewhat confused; now his arms were 
tiring, and, since the speed of the car kept increas- 
ing momentarily, he had begun to experience a feel- 
ing of panic. 

“ Better stop her, Mute,” he cried. “ Drop the 
sail! Pm losing my breath and my grip! ” 

The young stranger let the sheet go, and, in im- 
minent peril of being thrown from the reeling car, 
sprang forward to the halyards. He caught the 
rope from the cleat and attempted to lower the sail, 
but the rope fouled aloft and the hoops refused to 
slide down the mast. 

At that moment a thing happened which threw 
the car entirely out of Dannie’s control. Along the 
west side of the great meadow ran a hedge fence, 
and beyond the fence a wagon-road. The car had 
approached within about fifty feet of this fence, 
spinning on a long curve, when Mute let go the 
sheet. As the boom swung round Dannie quickly 
turned the front wheels to follow it, but at that they 
ran over a half dozen hogs, sleeping snugly in the 
cool loam of a slight depression, and the winged 
wagon went wild. They heard squeals and loud 
snoofs of fright, the car leaped upward and came 
down on the port wheels, and the next instant the 



They ran over a half dozen hogs . . . and the winged 
wagon went wild. — Page 106. 



SOME ODD INVENTIONS 


107 


dizzy contrivance plunged headlong into the hedge 
fence. 

Dannie and his laughing comrade described a 
parabolic curve through the air and landed in the 
roadttipon the other side of the fence! 

A good deal stunned, but still laughing, they 
scrambled to their feet and began brushing the 
dust from their clothes. As they did so they 
noticed an individual standing near, a man with 
green goggles over his eyes and who stared at them 
a moment in amazement, then suddenly clapped 
both hands upon his stomach, and bending far back 
like a rooster about to crow, broke forth in a shrill 
cackle of laughter. 


CHAPTER VII 


MR. JOSEPH PINKSON 

The two discomfited meadow-sailors looked at the 
cackling stranger ruefully and with some resent- 
ment. Without question they were legitimate ob- 
jects of amusement. The sailing wagon was in it- 
self both funny and amazing, and the fashion of the 
swift journey’s end was spectacular ancT ridiculous. 
Resides, there is something very like nettles in the 
laughter of a stranger, especially when one feels 
one’s self being laughed at. 

“Well,” said Dannie, “you seem to he enjoying 
yourself! Better he careful, you might choke! ” 
Dannie himself spat some dirt out of his mouth. 

The man pushed the green goggles up on his fore- 
head, shoved a small derby hat to the hack of his 
small, round head, and continued to titter. He had 
eyes of a light ice-green color, keen and furtive, and 
a long, sharp nose and wide mouth. His arms were 
long and his hands were long, though he was hardly 
of medium height; his shirt-cuffs were soiled and did 
108 


ME. JOSEPH PIHKSON 


109 


not reach within three or four inches of his hands; 
he was clad in a rusty suit of black diagonal, with a 
stringy silk handkerchief knotted about a long, 
stringy neck. He looked to be an actor long out of 
employment, a lawyer who had failed and taken to 
the road in search of profitable adventure, or, 
maybe, a gambler, or, possibly, a detective in dis- 
guise, or, still possibly, just a common thief. From 
his appearance it was wholly out of the question to 
say. At all events his aspect and his leering mirth 
angered Dannie. 

“ You must have swallowed feathers,” he said 
testily, “ and it looks like they might tickle you to 
death.” 

The stranger cackled more loudly. “ I might 
loan ’em to you,” he said in a cracked sort of gurgle. 
“ If you’re going to try flying again you ought to 
have a supply! ” 

Dannie continued beating the dust from his 
clothes; Mute lifted himself on tiptoe and gazed 
ruefully over the hedge at the wrecked car. 

“ You didn’t seem to light on your funny-bone, 
anyhow,” cackled the man, “ seemed to come down 
on your mad-bone.” 

“ Well, your bones would be of some use if they 


110 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


took you on up the road, it seems to me,” replied 
Dannie, still beating his dusty clothes. 

The strange individual pulled his goggles down 
and stepped forward still grinning. “ Tut, tut! ” 
he exclaimed, “ don’t be too brash. I’m looking for 
the Harp place. Is it up this way? ” 

“ Yes, the Harp place is up this way,” said Dan- 
nie. “ Mr. Harp is my uncle.” 

“ That so? Where do you live? ” 

“ With my uncle, Nathan Harp.” 

“ Oh.” The stranger at once looked keenly at 
Dannie’s companion. “ And who is this?” he 
asked. 

“ That is Mute Marvel,” replied Dannie, with a 
shade less asperity. 

The man sobered at once and regarded the taller 
boy steadily for a moment. “ I guess not,” he 
said. “ Is he the fellow that was found in the 
lake?” 

“ Yes,” answered Dannie. 

“Well, then that’s not his name; I happen to 
know better.” A curious smile hovered about the 
man’s wide mouth. Dannie noted that he had a 
smoky eye-tooth on the left side and a scar extend- 
ing from beneath one ear down across his throat. 


MR. JOSEPH PINKSON 


111 


The scar looked white, the rest of his neck was less 
clean. Dannie most decidedly did not like him. 
Still, the hoy’s interest was at once aroused; if this 
man knew who Mute was, then, no matter how for- 
bidding, he must be considered. 

“ Do you know him ? ” inquired Dannie more 
politely. 

The man reflected a moment, looking fixedly at 
Mute. He seemed to make up his mind. “ Cer- 
tainly,” he replied. 

“ Then, what is his name and where did he come 
from? ” Dannie asked. 

“Why,” the stranger began, then broke off and 
addressed the silent youth. “ What is your name? ” 
he asked. 

“ Mute Marvel. He says I am Mute Marvel,” 
said the tall boy, glancing toward Dannie. 

“ Yes, but are you? ” demanded the man. 

The youth looked around at the fields and 
meadows. “ I don’t know,” he said half sadly, “ I 
suppose I am.” 

“ Well, where did you come from? ” the man per- 
sisted, “ don’t you know that? ” 

The saddened boy shook his head slowly. “ Ho,” 
he said, and turned and began looking for a place 


112 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


in the hedge through which to get over to the 
wheeled boat. 

“ He can’t remember his name or where he came 
from,” said Dannie. 

The man fetched a long, slow whistle. Appar- 
ently some sort of a possibility or plan that he had 
not considered arose in his mind. He stared 
straight before him for a little space, a distinct ex- 
pression of greed and cunning in his face. “ I must 
see Mr. Harp,” he said. “ This is very important. 
I must take this young man home to his people. 
Will I probably find your uncle at the house?” 

“ I don’t think so. I expect he is out with the 
men in one of the fields. You can ask Aunt Sarah. 
You haven’t told me yet what Mute’s real name is 
nor where his folks live,” said Dannie. 

The man hesitated. “ I’ll talk to your uncle 
about that,” he remarked, and started onward to- 
ward the new dwelling, the half-shingled roof of 
which showed above the softly rolling land to the 
northward. Evidently the newcomer wanted time 
to determine just what he would say to Mr. Harp. 
His cunning, calculating expression deepened as he 
went onward. 

Dannie and Mute succeeded, after a good deal of 


MR. JOSEPH PINKSON 


113 


trouble, in getting over the hedge to the sailing car. 
The prow and front wheels were driven into the 
hedge while the stern and rear wheels were up in 
the air. They both laughed as they looked at the 
queer thing. 

“ The contraption kicked up its heels and can’t 
get them down again,” said Dannie. “ Tried to 
stand on its head and stood us on ours.” 

They pulled the car back and got its rear wheels 
upon the ground. The mast had snapped off near 
the deck and the steering gear was demoralized. 

“ Well, it’s a success anyhow,” remarked Dannie, 
contemplating the wreck with sympathy. “ It’s 
great fun to sail the thing. If we had a meadow 
about four times as big as this it would be safer, 
though.” 

“ Yes, it’s lots of fun,” agreed Mute. He looked 
at the contrivance thoughtfully. His faculties 
seemed unusually clear. “ The wheels ought to be 
placed wider apart and the deck hung between them 
lower down, within about two feet of the ground, 
so it wouldn’t tip over so easily,” he said. 

“ Yes, that’s a good idea,” assented Dannie; 
“ we’ll fix it that way if you don’t go away — if the 
man don’t take you home. Do you want to go? I 


114 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


wish you wouldn’t.” He looked at his comrade 
appealingly. 

“I don’t want to go anywhere; I like it here,” 
said Mute. “ But I would like to know who — who 
I am.” 

“ Yes, I understand. Well, let’s go to the house. 
I’d like to know what that Mr. Long-neck is up to. 
Come on.” 

“ Mr. Long-neck,” as Dannie called him, was talk- 
ing to Aunt Sarah when the boys arrived at the gate. 
He seemed very courteous and bland, bowing and 
smiling and showing his smoky eye-tooth as he 
talked. Aunt Sarah and the cook and maids seemed 
astonished and seriously impressed with what he was 
telling them. He tipped his hat to them and went 
past the big barn down into the field where Uncle 
Nathan and the men were stacking wheat. Dan- 
nie and his companion were on the ground 
when the man reached the stack-yard. As the 
stranger approached, Uncle Nathan scrutinized him 
suspiciously. Clearly Uncle Nathan was mentally 
protesting, believing that here was an insurance 
agent, lightning-rod peddler, or book agent* come to 
interfere with the work and consume valuable time. 

The man bowed with a great show of deference as 


MR. JOSEPH PINKSON 115 

he came near Uncle Nathan. The latter was on the 
ground with a pitchfork in his hand, directing the 
work of building the stacks and ricks. 

“ Is this Mr. Harp?” inquired the stranger. 

“ Yes, sir,” replied Uncle Nathan with a decided 
snap. He looked hard at the newcomer and wished 
that the man’s goggles were off so that his eyes 
might be seen. 

“ Well, I am Mr. Joseph Pinkson,” said the man 
in a gracious tone, “ I am glad to meet you, Mr. 
Harp.” 

He extended his hand, but Uncle Nathan took no 
notice of it, more than to grunt crustily. He looked 
up at a stack that was nearly completed. 

“ You can put on the cap-sheaves, Jim, and drive 
in the skewer. If you carry the stack any higher 
the top will blow off,” he said. He turned to the 
man beside him. “ What can I do for you? ” he 
asked shortly. 

“ I have been sent by the parents of the young 
man here — I have come to fetch him home to his 
folks,” said the stranger, bowing politely. 

Uncle Nathan’s air of indifference instantly 
changed to keen attention. He gave the man a 
swift look of surprise. “ Well, I’m glad to know — 


116 


TWO YOUNG INVENTOES 


to have the boy found,” he said. “We like him 
and he’s welcome here, but, of course, his people 
ought to know — they ought to have him with them, 
for he’s not in the best possible shape. What did 
you say your name is ? ” 

“ Joseph Pinkson. I live in St. Paul. I saw an 
item you put in the paper about the boy. I know 
his folks and will take him to them.” He bowed 
and smiled. 

Uncle Nathan looked him over keenly from head 
to foot. 

“Well, what is the name of his parents?” he 
inquired. 

“Colonel Nelson James is his father. He is 
superintendent of a railroad and lives on Broad 
Street in St. Paul,” said the man. “If you will 
have Mrs. Harp get the boy ready I will take him 
with me. We can catch the six o’clock train at 
Sidwell, I think.” 

Uncle Nathan looked at the man steadily for a 
few moments, his lips working in his grizzly beard. 
He turned toward Dannie and Mute. 

“ My boy,” he said, addressing the young 
stranger, “is Colonel Nelson James, of St. Paul, 
your father?” 


MR. JOSEPH PINKSON 


117 


Mute regarded Uncle Nathan blankly for a little 
space, then shook his head. u I don’t know,” he 
said. 

“ Well, do you know this gentleman here? Have 
you ever seen him before? ” asked Uncle Nathan. 

The youth turned his gray eyes upon the stranger, 
whose wide mouth was wreathed with an encourag- 
ing smile. “ No, sir, I don’t remember him,” he 
replied. 

“ Mute remembers anybody and anything that 
he ever saw before,” Dannie broke in. 

The stranger looked disconcerted for a moment, 
then recovered his coolness. “ I have seen the boy 
frequently,” he said, “ probably he never noticed 
me particularly. I remember him well, though, 
and since his father sent me in search of him I, of 
course, will take him home at once. His mother 
and father are naturally very anxious to see him.” 

“ He was brought here by a storm, a cyclone, 
from some other place. Do you know where from 
— what place it was?” inquired Uncle Nathan, re- 
garding the stranger narrowly. 

The man hesitated an instant. “ He was spend- 
ing his vacation up this way. He was at a lake 
north of here, Conner Lake, I think they call it.” 


118 TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 

“ I reckon not or the people up there would know 
something about him. I made inquiries,” said Uncle 
Nathan. “ Didn’t his father give you a letter or 
anything to show that you had a right to take him ? ” 
“ No, Mr. Harp; I suppose they didn’t think that 
necessary,” replied the man. 

Uncle Nathan again looked the stranger over 
scrutinizingly. “ Well, I’ll write to Colonel Nelson 
James,” he finally said. “ Providence has put the 
boy in our charge. We’ve tried to do right by him 
and we are bound to be careful of him. You can 
wait at Sid well until I hear from his father. You 
can stop here for supper if you feel hungry.” 

“ Thank you. No, I’ll go back to the town and 
wait there,” the man replied. He managed to speak 
with some politeness, though plainly he was cha- 
grined and angered. He turned toward Mute. 
“ You better come along with me,” he said. 
“ Wouldn’t you like to go? ” 

The youth regarded him steadily for a moment, 
then stepped to Dannie’s side and took his hand. 
He shook his head slowly as he looked at the man. 
“ I think I’d rather stay here,” he said. 

The stranger’s wide mouth drew down at the 
corners. He looked at Dannie as if he would have 


MR. JOSEPH PINKSON 


119 


enjoyed doing him bodily harm. Still, he forced 
a bland smile as he turned to Uncle Nathan. 
“ Very well,” he said, “ I will call again in a few 
days,” and walked away. 

“ What is Colonel Nelson James’ street num- 
ber? ” Uncle Nathan asked, when the man had gone 
a couple of rods. 

Mr. Joseph Pinkson, as the man called himself, 
paused and hesitated. “ As I remember, it is 262 
Broad Street,” he replied, and walked onward. 

Luke slipped to the ground from the side of a 
stack. He looked at Uncle Nathan and winked. 
“ I’ll bet you my last winter’s gum boots that there 
ain’t any Colonel Nelson James or Broad Street 
in St. Paul,” he said. “ If I’m not clean off my 
trolley I saw that feller at the county fair last year. 
He was a sleight-of-hand performer in a side show.” 

“ Maybe you’re right. Somehow I can’t trust 
him,” remarked Uncle Nathan, looking after the 
disappearing figure of the man. “ There may be 
a reward offered for the boy that he’s figuring on 
getting, though he don’t need to take the boy home 
to get that. All he’s got to do is to bring the father 
of the boy here and show him that he found his 
son.” 


120 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


“ More likely/’ said Luke, “ he don’t know where 
the boy belongs or who his folks are; just wants to 
get him into his hands to hold until a reward is 
offered. It’s more likely, yet, that his idea is to 
get the boy away somewhere and hide him and make 
his folks pay ten thousand dollars, or some such 
amount, before he’d produce him, like they do with 
stolen children sometimes. He sees that the boy 
can’t remember who he is or where he belongs and 
wouldn’t be able to tell anybody or help himself 
much.” 

“ I’ve been thinking of that,” said Dannie approv- 
ingly. 

“ Well, I’ll write to the address he gave us and 
see if we hear anything,” said Uncle Nathan. 
“ I’m going over to Sidwell this evening. Gregson, 
the school principal, said he thought we’d hear from 
the taxidermist, if the muskallonge was finished, 
and asking what we’d decided to do with it. Maybe 
I’ll go down to St. Paul and see this Colonel James, 
if there is such a man. Maybe, if there is no such 
person, I could find out something about the boy, 
anyway. Well, boys, keep the work moving; we 
must finish up this rick and the small stack before 
dark, if we can,” 


CHAPTER VIII 


ME. PINKSON’s EXPLOIT 

Nathan Harp did not return home from Sidwell 
until eleven o’clock that night. The following 
morning when the family and hired people were 
gathered about the long table in the wagon shed, he 
offered them information regarding his trip. All, 
and especially Dannie, were anxious for news. As 
the big serving dish of eggs and bacon went round, 
to be followed by heaping plates of hot griddle-cakes 
with coffee, Dannie raised his voice. 

“ Uncle, did you see anything of Mr. Blue-tooth 
over at Sidwell? ” he asked. 

“ Mr. Blue-tooth? Who in the world do you 
mean?” Uncle Nathan asked, pausing with a bite 
half way to his lips. 

“ The man who wanted to take Mute away. 
Didn’t you notice that he had a long blue eye- 
tooth ? ” 

Uncle Nathan laughed. “ No, I didn’t. Well, 
I heard that he had been seen in Sidwell, but he 

m 


122 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


wasn’t around anywhere last night that I could find. 
I guess he took himself off in some other direction. 
But I heard from the big fish, Dannie. The mus- 
kallonge bids fair to make you and your chum 
famous. I received a letter. I’ll read it to you.” 
Uncle Nathan took a letter from his pocket, and ad- 
justing his glasses on his nose, pulled a typewritten 
sheet from the envelope. He read as follows: 

“ Advertising Department, Northern Central 
“ B. B. 

“ St. Paul, Minn., Aug. 27 — 

“ Nathan Harp, Esq., 

“ Sid well, Minn., 

“ Dear Sir: We beg to advise you that a taxider- 
mist of this city has called our attention to an ex- 
ceedingly large muskallonge, caught from a lake on 
your farm, contiguous to our railroad line. 

“ From the best data we have been able to obtain, 
it appears that this is the largest fish ever taken 
from the interior lakes of this State. We are anxi- 
ous, therefore, to obtain either temporary or per- 
manent possession of the mounted specimen for ex- 
hibition purposes, since the magnificent fish was 
caught in the region traversed by our railroad. 


MR. PINKSON’s EXPLOIT 


123 


You can readily perceive that the specimen might 
be of much value to us when the tourist and fisher- 
men passenger traffic is considered. The fish has 
been treated and mounted successfully, and if we 
may purchase it, it is my desire, as manager of the 
company’s advertising department, to exhibit it to 
the public in our dining-car service for several 
weeks, then to make it the chief decoration of one 
of the walls of the General Passenger Agent’s office, 
or, possibly, the office of the President of the 
road. 

“ The taxidermist informs me that this 1 shark of 
the unsalted seas ’ was taken from the water by a 
nephew of yours and a young companion of his, 
both mere lads. The taxidermist has also placed 
in my hands two printed accounts of this great ex- 
ample of the angler’s art, one clipped from a Sidwell 
paper and the other from the columns of a St. Paul 
paper. I have the name of your nephew but not 
of his comrade. I would be very glad if you would 
send me photographs of the two lucky lads, together 
with the name of the intrepid young fellow who 
assisted your nephew in the great capture, since, 
whether you conclude to sell us the specimen or not, 
we desire to print a picture of the great muskal- 


124 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


longe and his captors in some advertising matter 
which we have in preparation. 

“ However, the chief of the passenger department 
agrees with me that we ought, if possible, to induce 
you to sell us the mounted fish in order that we may 
use it as a permanent specimen of the sort that may 
be had in the waters reached by our line. I there- 
fore am authorized to offer you, or your nephew and 
his comrade, as the case may be, two hundred dol- 
lars for the mounted muskallonge. If the amount 
does not seem sufficient kindly advise us as to what 
sum may be satisfactory. 

“ Further, I have taken the liberty to inclose 
herewith two passes from Sidwell to St. Paul and re- 
turn, made out to Dannie Dool and one other. Per- 
haps the two young fellows would like to take a trip 
to the capital. In that event we should be pleased 
to have them call at the general offices of the road, 
since, if they have no available photographs of them- 
selves, we may have pictures of them taken by our 
staff photographer. 

“ In any case, we should be very glad to meet 
them and have their account of the capture of this 
king of the muskallonge tribe. Should our offer of 
two hundred dollars meet with your approval, please 


MR. pixkson’s exploit 125 

so inform ns and a check for the amount will be at 
once mailed you. 

“ Trusting that we may hear from you at an early 
date, or, at least, that we may have the pleasure of 
meeting your nephew and his mate here at head- 
quarters soon, 1 am, 

“ Yery Respectfully Yours, 

“ Torrence Young, 

“ Gr. A. A. of K C. R. R. 

“ P. S. It has occurred to me that the lake from 
which the big fish was taken might, if at present 
it bears no name, be called Lake Dannie Dool, or 
some title that would embrace the names of the two 
already famous young fishermen. I shall be glad 
to receive any suggestion on this head which you 
may care to make. It will be necessary, of course, 
to call the lake by some name in our printed matter. 
The more euphonious the title the better.” 

“ Well,” said Uncle Nathan, laying down the let- 
ter, “ what do you think of that? ” He looked over 
his glasses smilingly at those about the table. 

Prom all parts of the long table came exclama- 
tions. “Well, I swan!” “Don’t it beat the 
band ! ” “ Hurrah for the kids ! ” “ Who in the 


126 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


world would have thought it! ” being some of the 
ejaculations. 

“ Let’s see the passes !” cried Dannie, jumping 
up and running around to his uncle’s side. The boy’s 
face and eyes were glowing. He ran with the two 
important pieces of pasteboard and put them down 
before Mute and threw his arm across his comrade’s 
shoulders. “ We’re going down to St. Paul! We 
will see the Capitol building and the Mississippi 
River and a whole lot of things! ” he panted. 
“ We are to have two hundred dollars — a hundred 
each, to spend! Think of it! Whew! ” 

“ Perform a clog! Perform a clog! It’s dhe 
right place to dance! ” said Luke. 

Mute looked at the yellow bits of pasteboard. 
“ Oh, passes! passes! I know,” he said, smiling. 

“ Do you want to go ? ” Dannie asked. 

The youth nodded his head. “ Yes, anywhere 
that you go,” he replied. 

“ Can we go, Uncle Hathan? ” Dannie cried. 

“Well, I expect so. I reckon it’s the best thing 
to do. I telegraphed to Colonel Helson James but 
didn’t get any reply. If he don’t answer, you boys 
could go around to the address and see if there is 
such a person, and if we do hear from him to-mor- 


MR. PINKSON S EXPLOIT 


127 


row or next day you can take your young friend 
home anyhow. It might be to your advantage in 
some way, you know.” 

Dannie performed the clog with enthusiasm. 

Four days afterward, no word having been re- 
ceived from Colonel James, Dannie and Mute 
boarded the early morning train bound for the 
capital. The day before they had been down to the 
wreck of the flying boat and had given it a half hour 
or so of consideration. Mute had lingered over it 
lovingly, though he was still unable to explain its 
mechanism clearly. 

“ Well, maybe some day we will understand it 
every way, then I expect we will want to rebuild it 
or make a new one,” Dannie had said. 

“ Yes,” Mute assented. 

After that they had hauled the sailing-wagon to 
the house and into the barnyard and left it, agreeing 
that upon their return they would equip it for fur- 
ther adventures; they had gone around to the spot 
where the squawking scarecrow man was standing 
sentry, and had thrown the wind wheel out of gear, 
that the “ man ” might not wear himself out un- 
necessarily. Then, when the soft summer night 
had fallen and they had gone to bed in the granary 


128 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


building, they talked for a long time about inven- 
tions and the coming journey. Dannie, at least, 
had slept but little, and such slumber as came to 
him had been beset with dreams of flying machines, 
locomotives with enormous wings, a muskallonge 
with so large a mouth that he had walked into it as 
into a cavern, and an iron man that was fully fifty 
feet tall, and who, with a prodigious flail beat the 
grain out of a whole wheat-rick in less than five 
minutes, then blew the chaff and straw away with 
his breath, leaving the grain in a clean pile upon 
the ground. In the midst of this astonishing per- 
formance he had been awakened by Luke, who was 
beating on the floor with one of his own big “ hired 
man’s ” boots, and calling to Dannie to get up. He 
had found that it was three o’clock in the morning, 
and after that Uncle Nathan had driven them in the 
spring wagon to Sidwell through a silent dark-gray 
world roofed with a low, violet sky in which 
throbbed many stars. At five o’clock they had 
climbed aboard the train and were off to new scenes 
and fresh experiences. 

The train was from the far Pacific. It had crossed 
the Cascade Range, the blue Columbia, the Rocky 
Mountains, the vast range lands of Eastern Mon- 


MK. PINKSON S EXPLOIT 


129 


tana, the vaster wheat lands of the Dakotas, and 
was making for Chicago connections at St. Paul. 
The long string of coaches were gray with dust, most 
of the passengers were asleep. Dannie and his 
comrade found a seat in the day-coach. Dannie 
was clad in his best Sunday suit, with new shoes and 
a new sailor straw hat, Mute was garbed in the 
navy-blue trousers and white sweater worn by him 
when found in the Marvel , though he had added to 
his apparel a light coat and cap which Uncle Nathan 
had purchased for him. Altogether the two lads 
looked very respectable. 

Uncle Nathan, in reply to the letter received from 
the General Advertising Agent of the road, had 
dispatched a letter to the official the following morn- 
ing stating that the captors of the muskallonge 
would, within a few days, profit by his kindness and 
visit St. Paul. They would call upon the official, 
bearing a note of introduction. Then, together 
they could pick out some appropriate name for the 
lake, if they liked; he, himself, was not particular. 

As for selling the muskallonge, he had talked the 
matter over with his wife and the boys, and had 
concluded to pay the boys the same amount that the 
company had offered and keep the fish himself. 


130 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


lie was erecting a new dwelling, he said, and felt 
that he would like to have the mounted specimen 
on the wall of his dining room, a sort of souvenir of 
his nephew and the strange visit of his young friend, 
for, no doubt, in time they would cease to live under 
his roof. 

However, he would freely consent to the railroad 
company’s taking charge of the mounted muskal- 
longe for a period of three months, during which 
time they might exhibit it as they saw fit, returning 
it to him when the stated period had elapsed. He 
regretted that he had at present no picture of his 
nephew or the young man who had aided in catching 
the fish. The official could have photographs of 
them made, if he cared to, after their arrival in the 
city. 

This letter, no doubt, was quite satisfactory to the 
railroad official. At least, as will appear, he very 
promptly took advantage of Uncle Nathan’s permis- 
sion to exhibit the great muskallonge. 

Indeed, arguing from developments, it seems 
probable, being an energetic advertising agent, that 
he had already put the beautiful fish on public view, 
believing, doubtless, that his offer made to Uncle 
Nathan would be accepted. 


MR. PINKSOn’s EXPLOIT 


131 


Mute and Dannie having seated themselves, the 
conductor soon came by and punched the pass which 
Dannie handed him. He looked curiously at the 
boys, then smiled. “ Are you the young fellows who 
caught the big fish in the lake near here ? ” he in- 
quired. 

Dannie was surprised. “ Yes, sir, we caught 
him,” he said, and flushed as he looked at the blue- 
clad, gilt-laced man. 

“ I thought perhaps you were the hoys,” the con- 
ductor said in a kindly way. “ Our Mr. Young told 
me down at headquarters about it the other day, 
and said you would get on at Sidwell. He said if 
he could get permission he was going to put the fish 
on view in one of the dining cars. We take on a 
diner at Porter, in about half an hour from now. 
Well, I hope you’ll have a pleasant trip,” and he 
went onward about his duties. 

The boys were pleased. Was it possible that they 
were actually growing famous through having 
caught simply a fish? It seemed probable, seeing 
that an astute and enterprising American advertis- 
ing man had set about making capital out of their 
exploit. Almost any sort of unlooked-for thing 
might come about in such a case. 


132 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


Presently as they sat looking out upon the rear- 
ward streaming fields, into which the early morning 
had spilled a wide sea of glory, Dannie spoke. 

“ Pve been thinking what we will tell them to 
name our lake,” he said. “ Seems to me it would 
be nice to call it Lake Marvel. You see your boat 
Marvel brought you there, which is the strangest 
thing of all, and if you had not come I would prob- 
ably never have gone fishing for the musky, and 
if it had not been for you we never could have got 
the fish out of the water, anyhow. Besides, Uncle 
Nathan says that Doctor Hammond said the fish 
was a marvel, so it seems like Lake Marvel would be 
a good name. What do you think? ” 

Mute looked at his young companion trustingly. 
“ What you think is right seems right to me,” he 
said. “ The name sounds nice anyway.” 

He still regarded Dannie with a kind of rever- 
ence, much as a child might look up to a trusted 
superior. To his mind, out of which much that was 
capable had been stricken, Dannie’s seemingly clear 
knowledge and mastery of things looked wonderful. 
Besides Dannie was always kind to him, teach- 
ing him with patience and enthusiasm many things. 
Without being clearly conscious of the strength of 


MR. PINKSON’s EXPLOIT 


133 


the feeling, he had grown to love the country boy 
deeply. As for Dannie, this handsome young com- 
rade of his, trusting, and in a way, half helpless, set 
all the best elements of his nature working. He 
would eagerly have sacrificed himself in almost any 
fashion in order to aid and serve him. 

“ All right,” he said, after a moment’s silence, 
“ then we will tell ’em to call it Lake Marvel.” 

He sat looking about him for a time. In the 
long coach, for the most part, the passengers were 
dozing or fast asleep, sodden and weary from hours, 
and in many cases, two or three days of continuous 
travel. The coming of dawn had awakened some, 
but all about in the seats worn and dusty people still 
snored and nodded in attitudes that were anything 
but lovely. As Dannie looked around, vaguely 
wondering from what point each one had come and 
whence they were going, the back of a man’s head 
down near the forward end of the coach caught his 
attention. Somehow it looked familiar. Suddenly 
he started. “ Why,” he whispered to Mute, “ if 
there isn’t our Mr. Long-neck, the man with the blue 
tooth! See, in the third seat from the door! ” 

Mute craned his neck and looked. “ Yes,” he 
assented, then apparently feeling no farther con- 


134 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


cern, turned and gazed out the open window, mistily 
watching the trees and fences and telegraph poles 
leaping toward the town they had left behind. 
Dannie got up and went forward to the front door 
of the car. As he passed the man he turned his 
sharp young eyes upon him scrutinizingly. The 
man now wore a soft hat and a mustache, but Dan- 
nie noted the scar under his ear and felt sure it was 
Mr. Joseph Pinkson. As Dannie passed, the man 
glanced up and slightly started, and as the boy re- 
turned toward his seat he saw that Mr. Pinkson had 
drawn his hat down upon his nose and seemed fast 
asleep. When Dannie had returned to his seat be- 
side Mute he whispered: 

“ Yes, that’s the chap who came out to the house 
and pretended to know all about you. He’s got on a 
different hat and a false mustache; he’s some kind 
of a rascal.” 

Mute looked puzzled. “ Seems funny, don’t it? 
I wonder what he’s up to? Well, I never saw him 
before,” and again the boy settled down to watch- 
ing the landscape wheeling back toward Sidwell. 

Dannie sat quiet after that watching the back of 
Pinkson’s head and thinking of many things. The 
wheels under the train rumbled hoarsely, hitting the 


ME. PINKSON’s EXPLOIT 


135 


rail-joints in a succession of swift blows that seemed 
to call out continually “ Click-clack, click-clack, 
click-clack.” Under all the noise there was a sort 
of purring hum, the steady jarring of every fiber of 
the train. They seemed going very fast. Dannie 
heard a passenger remark sleepily to another that he 
“ reckoned they were making up lost time.” The 
boy was wondering what fashion of a man Pinkson 
could be — if he were a detective or thief or just 
a plain swindler of some sort. It all seemed very 
odd. Doubtless the fact that Dannie’s mind was 
centered upon the man suspiciously prompted his 
swift action in the event that presently fell. 

Ten or fifteen minutes after Dannie had walked 
down to the front of the car and looked at the inter- 
esting person sitting there, the train slackened its 
speed and stopped. They had arrived at a little 
river on the east bank of which stood a water tank. 
The train was stopping that the engine might be sup- 
plied with water. South of the track was a wood, 
broadening out around a lake that stretched two or 
three miles southward. Fringed with willows the 
little river entered the wood some three or four hun- 
dred feet distant from the track, and, a half mile 
further onward, flowed into the lake. 


136 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


As the train was coming to a standstill Dannie 
noticed the man Pinkson arise and carelessly reach 
over to the seat next behind him and pick up a very 
neat valise, or, to more correctly describe it, a travel- 
ing salesman’s sample case. In the seat from which 
Pinkson lifted the case sat a portly, well-dressed 
man. He had drawn the window-shade down and 
was leaning partly against it and was fast asleep. 

Feeling the train coming to a stop, and obvi- 
ously thinking that they were entering Porter, a 
number of the passengers began to yawn and stir. 
Several, in an indifferent way, observed Pinkson 
take the case, but evidently thinking, if they con- 
sidered the matter at all, that Pinkson had probably 
left his property in the seat where the portly gentle- 
man had fallen asleep, they offered no protest. 

But in Dannie’s head matters were of a distinctly 
different cast. Something in his brain shouted most 
shrilly, a He’s stealing it! He’s robbing the man! ” 
Instantly he jumped up and started swiftly forward, 
calling back to Mute, “ Come on! come on!” As 
he passed the sleeping salesman he shouted, “ You 
are being robbed! A man has taken your valise! ” 
The man awoke with a cry and beat about him with 
his hands in a confused way, then leaped up. Dan- 


MR. PINKSON’S EXPLOIT 


137 


nie had gone out the door like a shot. Just what he 
proposed doing was intensely clear to him — he was 
going to stop the thief. He had a natural horror of 
theft and dishonesty, and here was a man he dis- 
liked robbing another ! How he was going to accom- 
plish this capture was not at all plain to him; he 
simply lunged at the problem headlong. 

The man with the case went down the steps on 
the north side of the train, ran back along the coach 
some fifteen feet and plunged under it. The car 
had just reached a full stop ; the next instant the man 
came out from under the car upon its south side. 
Dannie had jumped to the ground on the north side, 
but, seeing the man disappear beneath the coach, he 
leaped up the steps and across the platform and to 
the earth on the south side. As he went down the 
steps Mute came after him and behind Mute the 
portly gentleman. Dannie heard a rising babble of 
cries within the car and the big salesman shouted: 

“ Some one’s stolen my sample case ! There’s 
thousands of dollars worth of diamonds in it! ” 

The words thrilled Dannie from crown to toe. 
After that he heard and saw literally nothing but 
the human creature he was bent on taking. The 
man was going down the railroad embankment in 


138 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


long leaps when Dannie jumped to the ground from 
the steps of the coach. Instantly he flew after the 
robber. Making for the woods, the man went over 
the fence that bordered the right-of-way like a deer. 
He ran swiftly and with a fierce effort to escape — 
in his hand wealth, before him liberty, behind him 
prison doors. But the grown man who distances a 
youth who is in his seventeenth year, who, light of 
foot and supple of limb, is on fire with a purpose 
that approaches madness, must be very fleet in- 
deed. 

Dannie simply touched the fence with one hand as 
he went over it. In four seconds he was one-third 
way across the open ground and the robber was not 
more than ten feet in front of him. Then they 
raced. When they were not more than twenty feet 
distant from the wood Dannie was almost at the 
man’s heels. Then the man caught a pistol from his 
pocket as he ran, and swinging half way around, 
fired. Daimie fell. 

But, though Dannie had gone down it was some- 
thing more than a fall. He had leaped headlong at 
the man’s flying heels. T i the mad rush of the 
moment he could conceive of no other way of 
stopping the robber. As he struck the ground his 



HE HAD LEAPED HEADLONG AT THE MAN’S FLYING HEELS, 

Page 138. 



me. pinkson’s exploit 139 

arms for an instant clutched around the man’s 
ankles. The robber sprawled ten feet away, the 
pistol flew almost into the wood. Before the man 
could fully recover himself the nimble Dannie was 
upon him. The boy pinioned him around the waist 
and they went to the ground sideways with Dannie 
underneath. The next moment Dannie caught a 
glimpse of Mute’s white face, and the next the rob- 
ber was beside him on the grass and the three were 
clutched together and fighting as for life. Dannie 
felt blows that seemed to turn the whole world red, 
then he dimly saw the man above him, then he saw 
Mute flung off and down, and the man sprang into 
the wood and disappeared. 

Dannie lay still a few moments, stunned, gasping, 
then he sat up. Eight or ten men were standing 
about him. He felt dizzy and gazed at them curi- 
ously, then he looked down; a false mustache lay on 
the grass beside him, the jewelry case was clutched 
between his knees! 

The portly salesman, red and blowing like a por- 
poise, snatched up the sample case and fairly hugged 
it. “ My ! ” he gasped, “ if he had got away with 
that I’d have been ruined! Think of me going to 
sleep with this kind of a thing in my charge! ” 


140 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


Dannie got to his feet. Mute was standing by 
calmly brushing his clothes. Dannie looked at 
him. 

“ Are you hurt? ” he asked. 

“ Not a bit.” 

The conductor and the salesman each laid a hand 
on Dannie’s shoulders. The boy was brushing his 
hair back from his eyes and some blood from his 
face. “ Say, but you have the pluck all right,” said 
the conductor, patting Dannie admiringly, “ you are 
a regular young tiger! No wonder you landed the 
big fish ! Are you hurt much ? ” 

“ No, I guess not. I feel pretty hot and mussed 
up, that’s all.” He glanced toward the train; 
nearly a hundred people, standing on the embank- 
ment, perched on the fence, or craning their necks 
from the car windows, were looking toward him. 
Dannie was suddenly ashamed. He wished he 
didn’t have to go back to all those people; it was 
embarrassing. 

Some of the men had gone a short way into the 
wood, but they came back. Mr. Joseph Pinkson had 
picked up the revolver as he passed under the trees 
and no man in the crowd possessed a firearm of any 
sort. Pursuit was hardly a safe procedure. 


MR. PINKSON’S EXPLOIT 


141 


“ W e will send the sheriff and some deputies out 
from Porter,” said the conductor, “ if possible, that 
rascal must be caught.” 

“Yes, I’ll personally give a reward,” said the 
salesman. 

“I presume the company will, too,” said the con- 
ductor; “ we don’t relish carrying such passen- 
gers.” 

The big traveling man took a key from his wallet 
and unlocked the sample case. He took out two 
gold scarf pins, each set with a small diamond. 
“ Here,” he said, “ I want to decorate you two boys. 
You can consider yourselves as belonging to the 
Legion of Honor or Knights of the Garter, or what- 
ever you like. Anyway, you are the stuff out of 
which those orders are made, and I want you to 
understand that I appreciate what you have done.” 

Both Dannie and Mute demurred. “ But, we 
don’t want anything,” said Dannie ; “ it was a lot of 
fun, just a lot of fun; don’t mind it.” 

However, the men gathered about them and in- 
sisted, and the traveling man succeeded in pinning a 
jewel on each of the boys and they all then went 
back to the train. 

Quite naturally Dannie and Mute were looked 


142 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


upon as heroes. So much attention was paid to 
them that Dannie, at least, almost wished that he 
had not followed the robber. 

When the train arrived at Porter, from which 
point a division of the road ran northeast to Duluth, 
the train was held a little time while the conductor 
and Mr. Howland, the salesman, arranged with the 
authorities to make an effort to apprehend the rob- 
ber. Then, a dining car having been added to the 
train, they rolled onward. Mr. Howland insisted 
that the boys should go into the diner with him as 
his guests. 

Dannie thanked him. “ We’ve got some lunch 
with us,” he said, “ my aunt put it up for us.” 

“ Go into the emigrant car ahead and give it to 
the poor children. There are a lot of them in there. 
You and your chum are going to eat at my expense 
from here to St. Paul; the best that the dining car 
service can produce isn’t good enough for you,” said 
the salesman. 

Dannie hesitated. “ Pd like for them to have the 
food,” he finally said, “ if some one would give it 
to them. The folks look at us so much Pd rather 
hide than do anything else.” 

The big man laughed until he shook. “ You’d 


ME. PINKSON S EXPLOIT 


143 


hardly make a good drummer,” he said. “ Give me 
your basket; I’ll do the peddling.” 

He placed his sample case between the two boys 
and took the basket of baked chicken, pie, jelly, and 
cake, and went into the car ahead. Presently he 
returned with the empty basket. “ All right,” he 
said, “ now we’ll go to breakfast.” 

They passed back to the dining car and seated 
themselves at a snowy table. There was a vase of 
fresh roses on the board, and to Dannie things 
looked very fine. As he glanced around the car he 
started and rose up with an exclamation of surprise. 
Hear the center of the car upon one of the walls was 
a long, shallow, glass-covered case, and in the case 
the great muskallonge! 

At that moment two or three gentlemen, together 
with the conductor, came into the diner from the 
Pullman. 

“Well, Young, where did you drop from?” the 
conductor was asking. 

“ I came down from Duluth on Humber Two,” 
the man addressed replied. “Pm hungry as a 
bear.” 

He was a tall, clean, energetic-looking man, some 
forty years of age. 


144 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


“ Well/’ continued the conductor, “ I see you’ve 
had them put up the fish. It certainly is a daisy. 
Say, I’ve got the hoys that caught the fish; they’re 
on the train. Well, by whacky, here they are! 
Come over to this table, Young. Say, they caught 
a robber, too, back at Sweet Kiver tank. The 
wretch was running off with this gentleman’s sample 
case. These young fellows are certainly hummers 
from Hummersville ! ” 

The conductor introduced the boys and Mr. How- 
land to the General Advertising Agent and the other 
men. Mr. Young beamed and was very pleased to 
see them. He took a seat beside Dannie. 

“ I’ll eat here with you, if you’ll permit me,” 
he said. “ You gentlemen sit at the table here 
across the aisle, then we can talk, or rather, listen, 
for no doubt our young friends here will tell us 
about catching the big muskallonge, and Mr. How- 
land can tell about the robbery.” 

Dannie looked embarrassed, and Mute, too, 
though pleased, looked slightly ill at ease. However, 
the men were all pleasant and kind, and Mr. How- 
land, who sat by Mute at the table with Mr. Young 
and Dannie, talked of the attempted robbery and 
other things very entertainingly. Being urged, 


MR. PINKSON’S EXPLOIT 


145 


Dannie after a time told in a simple, modest way 
how he and Mute caught the muskallonge. Then, 
breakfast being presently finished, Mr. Young 
led the party hack into the buffet car, where the 
men lit cigars, and where, during the run of nearly 
a hundred miles to St. Paul, Dannie and Mute heard 
told two or three stories that they will never forget. 


CHAPTER IX 


THE TRAVELING SALESMAN’S STORY 

“ You’ve recently had a very disastrous cyclone 
up your way,” Mr. Young remarked to Dannie and 
Mute, when all were seated. 

“ Yes, sir,” replied Dannie, “ it was a pretty had 
one.” 

“ Were you in it? ” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ Really. What sort of an experience did you 
have ? ” 

“ It carried Uncle Nathan and me almost a mile 
away.” 

“ Is that so? Gentlemen, this is decidedly inter- 
esting. Well, Mr. Dool, I don’t think any of us 
ever before met a person who had been up in a 
cyclone. Please tell us all about it. The experi- 
ence must have been extraordinary.” 

Dannie blushed. To be called “ Mister ” and to 
be treated with attention and consideration by a man 
of importance was a new and delightful thing. 

146 


THE TRAVELING SALESMAN^ STORY 147 

“ Yes, tell us all about it,” chimed in Mr. How- 
land and several other listeners. 

Dannie hesitated and fidgeted. Pleasant as was 
consideration and approval he disliked the feeling 
of being conspicuous. Mr. Young, astute man of 
the world, perceived this and skillfully helped him 
begin the narrative. 

Let’s see,” Mr. Young carelessly suggested, 
“ where were you when the storm approached? In 
the barn or down at the lake fishing? ” 

“ I was out in a field shocking wheat,” said 
Dannie. 

“ Oh, I see. Well, how did the storm look when 
it was coming up? Must have been a grand 
sight! ” 

“ Yes, it was,” replied Dannie, then quickened by 
memory of the sublime spectacle, he went on and 
told the story from end to end, not leaving out how 
his uncle intended taking the life of old Flaps, and 
how the old dog saved his uncle’s life and won the 
right to live his own life out to its natural end. 

The listeners were greatly interested and touched 
by the tale. One of the gentlemen from Duluth, a 
Mr. Horton, said: 

“ Well, my boy, you certainly have been having 


148 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


some strange experiences. If you keep on you’ll 
become a full-fledged hero and some one will be 
putting you in a romance.” 

Dannie looked down and flushed. He was not 
very sure that he wanted to become a hero if it 
caused people to stare at one so. 

“ Was your quiet young friend here also in the 
cyclone? ” asked Mr. Young, glancing at Mute with 
a kindly smile. 

Dannie hesitated, turning his hat about upon his 
knee and looking at it. “ Yes, he was in it, but he 
got hurt in some way at the beginning and didn’t 
see much of it.” 

Dannie wanted to tell them all about Mute, how 
he came to Lake Marvel, and that his comrade did 
not yet know who he was or whence he came. 
But, somehow, Dannie could not bear that these 
strangers should know that his pale, quiet friend 
was afflicted, that he had lost the faculty of memory. 
He noticed that Mr. Horton kept looking at Mute 
in an inquiring fashion, as if wondering who the 
youth might be or if he had not seen him before 
somewhere. 

“ Do you live near each other? ” asked Mr. Hor- 
ton, addressing Mute and nodding toward Dannie. 


THE TRAVELING SALESMANS STORY 149 

The pale boy looked slightly confused. “ He’s 
been living with us lately/’ said Dannie, coming to 
Mute’s rescue. 

“ Well, he’s a hero, all right,” remarked Mr. 
Howland, “ the way he waded into the robber was 
fine to see. Speaking of heroes, I’ve a mind to 
tell you a story about myself and a young friend of 
mine, an experience we had out West some twenty- 
five years ago. My young friend was the real hero 
— I’ve never been very heroic; I’ve always been 
’most too fat! The exploits of our young friends 
here brings the performance freshly to my mind. 
The story is rather long; I don’t know if I ought 
to inflict it upon you.” 

Every one clamored to hear it. Dannie, espe- 
cially, was delighted to have attention diverted from 
himself and Mute. 

Mr. Howland was silent a little, looking up mus- 
ingly at the smoke from his cigar. He was a good 
talker — most traveling salesmen are — and, being 
wise in narration, was careful about the beginning 
and end of whatever he told. 

“ The thing was extraordinary enough,” he be- 
gan; “I fancy you will find it a little difficult to 
believe. Nevertheless, it happened, mainly, as I 


150 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


will tell you. Out in the Kymoose country, where 
it took place, they talk of it to this day. The region 
lay within the arid zone, the western hem of it 
sweeping up under the very eaves of the Rocky 
Mountains. In winter the region was always white, 
in springtime always green, in summer it was often 
scorched with drouth, a dun and leathery land, piti- 
ably hot and full of want. Of course, that is mostly 
changed now, since irrigation became a science. 

“ That which was most needed in the Kymoose 
country in those early days was moisture. Brains 
and courage and muscle were there, and had made 
homes for human beings — a little town and farms 
and sod houses and, now and again, a dwelling that 
was spacious, but the land lacked juice and the fat 
plenty that comes of it. 

“ In some seasons, when the heavens had piled the 
western peaks with unusual depths of snow, the Ky- 
moose brought down summer water sufficient to 
make the fields of the lowlands fertile, but there 
was never quite enough rain for the uplands, and 
in some years the crops of the whole region were 
literally burned to ashes. Therefore, the people 
talked rain, the causes of the dearth of it, and, 
above all, the ‘making ’ of it. There were periods, 


THE TRAVELING SALESMAN^ STORY 151 

indeed, when the inhabitants, it might be said, 
breathed and thought and had their being in the 
idea of aiding nature in wringing moisture from 
the pitiless sky. 

“ Hayden Burns, whose farm lay on the hillside 
above Kymoose City, talked of rain making even in 
his sleep, it was said. Certainly, when awake, he 
often evolved a voluble, if not wholly scientific, 
argument, in favor of the conception. Davie, his 
son, a tan-haired youth, and good Mrs. Burns, were 
also quite saturated with the idea. 

“ One day they had Professor Turley Dinks to 
dinner. Professor Dinks was principal of the Ky- 
moose City school, and presumably knew things that 
were worth while. 

“ My father had a jewelry store in the town and 
Davie and I were chums. I had also been invited 
to the dinner. 

“ The time was early May and the discussion of 
rain making seemed a bit foolish, for the Kymoose 
country looked that it might presently flow with 
milk and honey. But they knew of the dead-dry 
days that might be looked for, when the crops would 
wilt in the furnace breath of the South, and the burnt 
face of the land crack and parch for water. Mr. 


152 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


Burns thought no subject was so important, which 
indeed was very true. 

“ 1 It is all a question of noise, of atmospheric 
shock/ he averred, when we were drawn up to the 
table and enjoying the dinner prepared in honor of 
the teacher’s visit. ‘ When I was in the war, I re- 
member, after nearly every battle we had a rain 
storm.’ 

“ ‘ Yes; that was quite a common phenomenon, I 
believe,’ said the professor. 

“ ‘ It was the din of musketry and the booming 
of cannon that did it. I don’t see how it could be 
accounted for in any other way,’ continued Mr. 
Burns. He had a grizzled, tanned aspect; winter 
and summer he looked anxious. 

“‘Wal, if noise will bring rain,’ drawled Jonas, 
the hired man, who sat at the foot of the table, ‘ why 
not get a passel of Indians in from the mountains 
an’ have ’em do the ghost dance? Their pow-wow 
would certainly bring a cloudburst.’ He laughed 
immoderately at his witticism. 

“ Mr. Burns frowned and the teacher smiled. 
‘ The Indians may come in here and do things worse 
than the ghost dance, one of these days/ said the 
professor. ‘ I heard yesterday that both the Chey- 


TIIE TRAVELING SALESMAN^ STORY 153 

ennes and the Sioux were getting ugly. If they 
should come out of the mountains and make a 
descent on the settlement they would naturally 
come down the Kvmoose valley. Over in the 
village we are all hoping there may be no out- 
break. ? 

“ The hired man checked his levity and glanced 
toward the door apprehensively. Davie and Mrs. 
Burns looked unpleasantly impressed. 

“ ‘ Oh, there has been that kind of talk before/ 
said Mr. Burns impatiently; ‘ there’s no danger. 
The important thing is to get more rain in June and 
July. Now , professor, what do you think of send- 
ing away for a lot of cannon and firing them off? 
The noise might bring rain.’ 

“ ( And on the Fourth of July we could have a 
great celebration/ cried Davie. 

“ i The purchase of a lot of big guns would be 
very expensive/ Teplied the teacher. ( If the Gov- 
ernment would loan us a park of artillery it might 
do, but, of course, that is quite out of the question. 
I’ve been considering the problem and my notion is 
that the explosions should properly take place high 
in the air. It is my theory that there is plenty of 
moisture in the upper currents, and that heavy ex- 


154 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


plosions would necessarily create a vacuum into 
which the moist particles would rush, causing 
condensation and natural precipitation. Of course, 
too, the shock of the explosions would set up ex- 
treme atmospheric vibrations and that might be of 
value in the process.’ 

“ ‘ Yes; I’ve noticed that when there is a big clap 
of thunder it nearly always rains harder right away,’ 
said Davie. 

“ The professor looked at him approvingly; 
Davie was one of his brightest pupils. ‘ Yes; vibra- 
tions seem to have an influence, though in the case 
of rain accompanying battles, probably the gases 
produced by the explosions have much to do with it,’ 
replied the teacher. 

“ ‘ Why not send up a balloon and explode dyna- 
mite in some way? ’ inquired Mr. Burns. 

“ ‘ That seems the most feasible means of testing 
the matter,’ assented the professor. ‘ We might 
send up a balloon to a height of, say, a thousand 
feet, the balloon being anchored to the earth by 
long ropes or wires, then a single person in the bal- 
loon could throw out dynamite bombs, the bombs 
being timed to explode after falling one hundred 
feet. A tremendous detonation and atmospheric 


THE TRAVELING SALESMAN^ STORY 155 

concussion might be produced in this way, and 
doubtless, if there is truth in our theory, rain would 
be produced/ 

" Mr. Burns looked gratified and interested. 
Davie jumped up with his eyes all aglow. 1 I’m 
going to go up in the balloon and throw out the 
dynamite/ he cried. 

“ Mrs. Burns protested and inquired of the 
teacher if such a procedure would not be very peril- 
ous to those engaging in it. 

“ ‘ USTot at all/ was the reply. ‘ Dynamite will 
not explode unless struck a sharp blow. The bombs 
are fitted with an internal percussion cap and a fuse. 
The fuse can be cut to any length so that it will 
explode the bombs in any number of seconds one 
may choose. The impact of exploded dynamite is 
principally downward, so the balloon and its occu- 
pants would be safe. No one, of course, would be 
permitted to stand on the earth immediately be- 
neath the balloon/ 

“ 1 You’ve got the scheme, professor! IBs just 
the thing! ’ exclaimed Mr. Burns with enthusiasm. 

‘ If others will not chip in money sufficient, I ? m 
going to sell the south forty acres of the farm and 
make the experiment myself. We’ve got more 


156 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


land than we need, anyway, besides, if we don’t find 
some way to get more rain no one’s land in this 
region is going to be worth much.’ 

“ Professor Dinks looked pleased. ‘ No doubt 
others will aid in bearing the expense,’ he said. 
( There is another explosive which I have thought 
of that might be used,’ he went on. ‘ If we had 
some large cylinders of copper or sheet iron, and 
would place in them oxygen and hydrogen, the two 
gases being mixed in the proportions of one-third 
oxygen and two-thirds hydrogen, and would then 
explode the gases by a fuse-spark, the detonation 
would be terrific. Beside the shock of explosion 
there would be the chance of the two gases uniting 
to produce water.’ 

“ Clearly the listeners were impressed. ‘ This, 
of course, would be more difficult to handle,’ added 
the professor, ‘ and probably the better way would 
be to explode the cylinders of gas on the ground 
simultaneously with the explosion of dynamite in 
the air. The whirling together of the mighty air- 
waves created by the detonations at separate points 
would create very great atmospheric agitation, some- 
what like the turmoil of water created by ocean 
billows rushing together. No doubt such agitation 


THE TRAVELING SALESMAN^ STORY 157 

would materially aid in the production of fluid pre- 
cipitation.’ 

“ Mr. Burns arose and grasped the professor’s 
hand and wrung it fervently. 1 All right/ he ex- 
claimed, i you look after the ordering of the bal- 
loon an’ the touchin’ off of the stuff and I’ll see that 
the bills are paid. I’ll raise the money somehow. 
I don’t propose to lay still any longer and see the 
land around here grow next to worthless just be- 
cause most folks haven’t either nerve or sense.’ 

u i Hurrah ! ’ said the hired man rather weakly, 
feeling that his wages might be jeopardized by his 
employer’s enthusiasm. 

“ * Hurrah ! ’ cried Davie and I, seeing fun and 
excitement in store. 

“ ‘ Hayden, don’t be rash, now,’ said Mrs. Burns. 
‘ I hope nobody will get hurt.’ 

“ ‘ Oh, shucks ! ’ exclaimed Mr. Burns impa- 
tiently. 

“ Professor Dinks smiled patiently, and shaking 
hands with each one present, and promising to see 
Mr. Burns on the morrow, took his departure. 

“ It was on the third day of July, I remember, 
that preparations to apply the Dinks-Burns stimulus 
to Heaven’s natural laws were pronounced complete. 


158 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


Probably, as respected the production of moisture, 
the sky was in need of a tonic, for no rain had 
fallen during the month of June, and the fields lay 
wilted. The parching fever of July and August 
would surely lick up the soil’s last drop of sap. 

“ On the soft slope of the hillside near the village, 
and just inside of the fence inclosing one of Hayden 
Burns’ wheat fields, a wrinkled mass of silk-lined 
canvas hung in a wooden frame. Beneath it stood 
a big tank of gas, ready for inflating the giant sack. 
Along the spine of the ridge above, arranged in a 
double line, stood one hundred sheet-iron cylinders 
filled with gas and prepared for explosion by means 
of connecting fuse, the cans to be exploded in dupli- 
cate with ten seconds elapsing between detonations. 
By the balloon stood a box of dynamite bombs, each 
bomb being fitted with a little tail fuse and a per- 
cussion cap. 

“ This was the status of preparation when night 
fell on July third. On the morrow the Kymoose 
country should be treated to a ‘ racket ’ befitting 
the glorious Fourth, such noise as had not been 
heard in that quarter since primeval earthquakes 
reared the mountains. At least, so Professor Dinks 
said. Besides, on the morrow, the blistered face of 


THE TRAVELING SALESMAN^ STORY 159 

nature would be bathed with cooling rain. That, also, 
Professor Dinks said. Old Peter Trocker, shoe re- 
pairer and oracle down in the village, held that the 
professor was ‘ tricky/ since the ‘ Fourth/ being a 
day of noise and picnics and new feminine apparel, 
was bound to bring rain, anyhow. But nothing 
daunted, the professor and Hayden Burns went on 
with the work. The professor had given all his 
leisure hours during two months to the project. 
Burns had given labor and money and a faith that 
was contagious. Many of the dwellers on the Ky- 
moose were persuaded that the experiment would 
prove effective; all were curious respecting re- 
sults. 

“ Of course, the thing was a dangerous and crazy 
experiment, but rain making in the arid belt was 
attempted at many times and in many ways during 
those years. Davie and I had numerous confabs 
about it. We were anxious to go up in the balloon 
and fire off the dynamite, a perfectly silly idea. 
Mr. Burns and Mrs. Burns and Professor Dinks 
strenuously opposed this desire. ‘ Something 
might happen/ they said, and — something did 
happen. 

“ Two questions of importance finally reached 


160 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


decision. Professor Dinks would supervise the fir- 
ing of the gas cylinders, while Hayden Burns 
ascended in the basket of the balloon and exploded 
the dynamite. 

“ During those years — back in the seventies — * 
there was on the far frontier a whisper in the air 
of impending Indian attacks much of the time. 
Happily, actual disaster from the red men rarely 
materialized. Throughout the Kymoose region 
rumors of restlessness among the tribes of the moun- 
tain valleys to the westward had been persistent for 
months, indeed, so long that apprehension had fallen 
dormant. But security was fancied rather than 
real, for near midnight on July third a wounded 
man rode into Kymoose City from the west with a 
report that whitened the faces of women and chil- 
dren and caused the scalp of many a male head to 
creep and prickle with fear and horror. Several 
families had been massacred up near the mountains, 
and the Cheyennes and Sioux tribes had joined 
forces to the number of two thousand and were mov- 
ing down the Kymoose. They were armed and in 
war paint and would probably strike the settlement 
about daybreak. That was the terrifying news the 
injured courier brought. 


THE TRAVELING SALESMAN^ STORY 161 

u Jonas, the hired man, had gone into solitary 
bivouac for the night down by the balloon. Rolled 
in a blanket, one might sleep anywhere out of doors 
in that high, arid region, but Jonas, being set to 
watch over a great and precious interest, was in- 
structed not to sleep. However, keeping awake all 
night in a silent field, under the stars, requires forti- 
tude, and Jonas, by midnight, felt the need of a 
tonic. He therefore left the balloon and went 
down into the town in quest of a stimulant. That 
'which he found was far more exciting than anything 
spirituous, — wild news of a mad peril pressing upon 
the very threshold of the community. 

“ At once, and as wildly as his legs would carry 
him, he carried the dreadful intelligence to Hayden 
Burns’ house. His words were a kind of conflagra- 
tion, and brought the family out of slumber as to 
an actual fire. Soon Jonas and his employer were 
striding toward town, each with a Winchester on his 
shoulder, while Mrs. Burns and Davie followed 
pantingly. Thus far, Davie had not slept that 
night, but had lain in bed staring at the darkness, 
seeing great pictures of the morrow painted on the 
gloom, and grieving that the heroic part he longed 
to play should be denied him. 


162 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


“ In the streets of the little town they found a 
giddy fever of action. Lamps were aglow in all the 
houses, people were running to and fro and organiz- 
ation for defense was shaping through the united 
effort of Tiger Jones, gambler and ‘ bad man/ and 
Rev. Talcott Hunt, pastor of the First Church, all 
caste being obliterated and all differences forgotten 
in the general peril. 

“ Throughout the latter half of the night and 
during the early morning settlers came hurrying 
into the town from all quarters, those from up the 
Kymoose barely escaping the foe, and, in a few cases, 
leaving behind members of families to such fate as 
no one cared to fancy. 

“ Still, while the general influx was to the town, 
some went hastily out of it eastward by the road that 
followed the Kymoose. Among the latter were 
Professor Dinks and his family. In the threatening 
disaster, naturally enough, rain and the making of it 
ceased to influence the professor’s mental behavior. 
Hayden Burns, also, forgot both the experiment and 
the ‘ Fourth.’ But Davie did not. A vision blos- 
somed in his young imagination, a conception so 
large and vivid it made his eyes shine with excite- 
ment. He found me among the fear-inflamed 


THE TRAVELING SALESMAN^ STORY 163 

people of the street and detached me from the 
crowd with a whistle and jerk of the head. When 
we were apart from the others, Davie seized 
me by the wrist and hurried me through an 
alley. 

“ ‘ I’m going up in the balloon to see where the 
Indians are/ he whispered. ‘ I want you to help 
me. Keep mum; the folks would stop me if they 
knew! ’ 

u I gasped, so keen was my appreciation, but was 
at once beset with enthusiasm. i All right/ I cried, 
and we hurried away to the field. When at length 
we paused beside the balloon, Davie at once turned 
the stop-cock of the gas tank and the buoyant ether 
began to whistle through the inflating pipe and stir 
like a thing of life in the mighty sack. He had been 
Professor Dinks’ chief aid at every step of prep- 
aration, and now his procedure was sure and 
direct. 

<e By four o’clock in the morning the balloon 
stretched upward, a gigantic bubble, swaying softly 
in a slow eastern wind. The early summer dawn 
broke in muffled glory. Davie carefully placed a 
lot of the dynamite bombs in the basket of the bal- 
loon and climbed in. 


164 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


“ ‘ Untie the stay-ropes, Tuck/ he said to me. 
‘ In five minutes I’ll know where the Indians are, I 
think. Til shout down to you and you trot down 
and tell Tiger Jones and the preacher/ 

“ c All right/ I replied, and three minutes later 
the huge hag of gas leaped upward like a bubble 
blown by a quick breath. Davie saw the earth fall 
away from under him like a swiftly expanding ring, 
then suddenly the balloon tugged and quivered and 
the world and its vast map of fields and mountains 
and plains stood still. The balloon had reached the 
end of its tether, a rope eight hundred feet long, 
staked securely to the earth. 

“ Davie looked abroad. A great bank of vermil- 
ion-colored vapor stretched across the east, human 
figures were hurrying to and fro down in the town, 
horsemen were galloping here and there, wagons 
filled with people were rolling eastward in clouds of 
dust, and west of the village groups of armed men 
were gathering in the valley bent on holding back 
the foe. Not a mile west of them, riding in a great 
mass, he saw the approaching Indians. A painted 
horde, nearly a thousand strong, they came, gal- 
loping steadily and with no outcry, plainly intent on 
surprising and overwhelming the settlement in 


THE TRAVELING SALESMAN’S STORY 165 

massacre before the inhabitants could prepare to 
resist. 

“ In front of the rushing mass several white peo- 
ple were riding for their lives. Those on horseback 
were making good their escape, but a family in a 
wagon was hard pressed. Davie’s face whitened, 
and his eyes widened with horror as he watched, for 
suddenly the driver of the team dropped from the 
wagon seat, pierced by a bullet, a horse fell, and the 
women and children were being dragged from the 
vehicle by the Indians. Davie saw knives or toma- 
hawks flashing in the air and covered his eyes with 
his hands and cried aloud. Then he glanced above 
him and about him oddly, up at the pink-blue sky 
and down at the mighty world below. Suddenly he 
shouted to me: 

“ ‘ Loosen the guy-rope, Tuck! Cut it with an 
ax — anything! The Indians are killing folks up the 
valley! The wind will carry the balloon up that 
way. I’m going to use the dynamite! Don’t wait, 
I say, cut her loose ! ’ 

“ I was frightened nearly out of my boots, but I 
picked up an ax and severed the rope with a blow. 
As the great bag surged upward, Davie leaned over 
the side of the basket and cried: 


166 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


u 1 Set a match to the fuse of the gas cylinders ! 
The Indians may think that soldiers are here with 
cannon! Do you understand? ’ 
a c Yes/ I shouted. 

“ Then the town and the earth were passing east- 
ward from Davie, the mountains were lifting and 
coming toward him, below him he saw groups of 
armed men looking upward. He seemed not mov- 
ing at all, hut the solid earth and everything upon it 
were racing eastward. When he had passed a little 
to the west of the men he lifted a bomb and threw 
it downward, following it with his eyes. As the 
dynamite struck the earth he saw a cloud of dust 
and shattered things gush outward and the next 
moment a terrific report came to his ears. 

“ ‘ It works all right/ he half whispered. 

“ The Indians were coming toward him like some 
sort of gaudy, rocking, hideous river. As the front 
of the horde neared him he flung three bombs, one 
after the other, into the open ground in front of 
them. The soil burst up in clouds and the sky 
seemed rent with the detonations. Hundreds of 
greasy, painted countenances flashed upward, lips 
emitted terrific yells, horses plunged in wild con- 
fusion. The next instant Davie sent a bomb into 


THE TRAVELING SALESMANS STORY 167 

the forefront of the howling mass, crying shrilly in 
his excitement: 

“ ‘ Now, y oil’ll go back, I guess ! Now, you’ll 
stop butchering women and children, I reckon! 
Now, you’ll stop killing folks, won’t you! ’ 

“ In a few moments he was beyond them, and 
looking back, saw the gaudy, glistening torrent torn 
open in spots and whirling and breaking in inde- 
scribable eddies of confusion. In the next instant he 
heard the first of a series of thunder crashes striking 
through the air from the ridge south of Kymoose 
City, and from his great height saw a puff of dust 
lifting into the dawn’s rosy glow. 

“ * Hurrah for you, Tuck! Keep it a-going; 
you’ll scare ’em to death! They’ll think more bal- 
loons are coming, loaded with dynamite,’ he cried, 
beside himself with excitement. You see, I’d put 
a lighted match to the fuse of the gas tanks! 

“ Davie looked back at the Indian forces; they 
were retreating westward like a stampede of wild 
cattle. The throwing out of the dynamite had been 
as the casting overboard of ballast, and the balloon 
rose higher and higher. So infinitely soft was the 
motion that the youth in the basket could have de- 
clared that he had remained fixed in one position 


168 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


and only the earth had dropped downward and raced 
away eastward. Now the mountains were approach- 
ing him, looking enormous and faintly golden in the 
yellow splendor of the morning. For the first time 
he thought of personal danger and the problem of 
how he should descend to the earth again. 

“ Heaped and tumbled, the mountain range 
rushed straight toward him. The illusion was per- 
fect and most startling. The cooler air of the 
region began to chill the gas in the balloon, and the 
huge sack began to wrinkle and sink downward. 
Davie picked up the remaining bombs and threw 
them out, hearing them roar among the thickets of 
the benchland, then the balloon mounted upward 
again, but, drifting close to the chill face of a moun- 
tain, cooled and then began sinking rapidly. Al- 
most before he could realize what was taking place, 
Davie felt the basket being dragged through fra- 
grant pine-tree tops, and the next he knew the bal- 
loon was flattening itself against the mountain side. 
He felt himself shaken and thumped about and hurt, 
and the next moment was sprawling on the ground 
half stunned and wholly confused. When he got to 
his feet the balloon, relieved of his weight, was beat- 
ing against a great precipice of stone above him, but 


THE TRAVELING SALESMAN^ STORY 169 

slowly collapsing from a rent in the fabric, and 
pulsing and quivering like a dying thing. 

“ Davie arrived at home near the middle of the 
afternoon that day, bruised and lame and wet, but 
glowing with happiness. Half the way he had 
walked in a pouring rain, that wide bank of vapor, 
seen in the east at dawn, having behaved as 
does a sponge filled with moisture when squeezed 
by a strong hand. 

“ Hayden Burns contended that the noise had con- 
stituted the distilling force, but old Peter Trocker, 
the shoemaker, sniffed and declared that the day, 
being the ‘ Fourth/ would have brought rain, any- 
way. All agreed that, at least, there had been fire- 
works and a celebration of a new sort. The ‘ cele- 
bration 9 was continued far into the night, and the 
praise and amazement touching Davie’s performance 
expressed then and in later days, would make a 
book. 

“ But that which was of far greater moment 
eventuated in the fact that presently the people 
built a dam across the Kymoose at the foot of the 
mountains and held back its flood-waters until the 
fields were athirst with summer, then, by pipe and 
ditch, gave the crops to drink. 


170 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


“ This piece of sanity had birth in the brain of 
Professor Dinks, which goes far to prove that the 
speculative mind is valuable to society, and that a 
man who shrinks from peril may sometime acquit 
himself gloriously in seasons of repose.” 


CHAPTER X 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 

Dannie drew a long breath as Mr. Howland fin- 
ished the story. “My! but that’s fine!” he ex- 
claimed. 

Most of the men clapped their hands in approval, 
all were entertained and pleased. One man said 
to another in an undertone, “Ho wonder he is a 
salesman ; as a talker he certainly gets away with the 
buns! ” 

“ Yes,” murmured the man addressed, “ just 
fancy him coming up against a fellow to sell him 
goods! What could a man do but just collapse and 
take what he offered? If I had his tongue I’d be in 
the IT. S. Senate instead of hunting lost and short 
freight for. the Horthern.” 

“What became of the boy? How did he turn 
out?” asked Mr. Young. 

“ He’s one of the big copper men up in Montana, 
worth — well, I fancy that he could buy most of the 
Kymoose country now and have something left,” the 
171 


172 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


traveling man replied. “ As for Tuck, myself, I 
inherited my father’s business, but presently sold 
out and went east instead of west, which was a mis- 
take. I’ve been on the road for a Hew York 
jewelry house for fifteen years. I have, of course, a 
good salary, but Davie — he is wealthy. The differ- 
ence is that Davie was born a creature of action and 
did things, while I, as 1 fancy you have observed, 
liked to talk. These boys here seem to be a good 
deal like Davie.” 

Mr. Young nodded and smiled. Mr. Horton also 
nodded his head and sat looking at Dannie for a 
few moments with a peculiarly introspective expres- 
sion of countenance. “ I know a story, a rather 
good story,” he said musingly. “ It is about a boy 
that I once knew. I wrote the story out once, but 
it has never been printed. I have half a mind to 
tell it to you. Listening to these stories brings it 
very clearly to my mind.” 

They all clapped their hands. “ Good, good! We 
are going to have another story! Tell it, Mr. Hor- 
ton, tell it ! ” was exclaimed. Most of those present 
brought their chairs nearer and fell into listening 
posture. One man on the outer fringe of the circle 
whispered to another, “ Mr. Horton is the company’s 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 173 

attorney at Duluth. He is one of the greatest law- 
yers in the Northwest. He can make a jury believe 
that black is white. Just listen; the diamond drum- 
mer is a smooth talker, but you just listen to 
Norton.” 

The attorney tipped back his chair slightly and 
fixed his big, clear eyes upon a silver screw-head in 
the wall of the car above the window in front of him, 
and began in a comfortable, easy tone : 

“ He was a crippled boy, with sorrowful eyes and 
a mat of curling hair crowned with an old straw 
hat. He was standing on Beaver Head, a jutting 
cliff that rises close upon the right of the little inlet 
bay of Millwood on the Wisconsin side of Lake 
Superior. 

“ Back of him a great stairway of forest-covered 
ridges climbed inland with all their tumbled ocean 
of tree tops turning a golden olive in the sunset. 
On his left the earth sank sharply down to meet the 
waters of the bay, while just before him, with a sheer 
drop of quite a hundred feet, the Head hung over 
the lake. Its whole face was solid rock, trenched 
and furrowed like a giant’s muscle-knotted breast. 

“ From the crest the view was wide and beautiful, 
the lake spreading out its ever-changing plain to the 


174 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


horizon. In the far northwest a group of islands 
lay low in the sea, like blue monsters swimming out- 
ward, and beyond them a fleet of lumber schooners 
was fading in the offing. The boy drew a long 
breath of weariness as he watched them. He could 
not help feeling how sweet it would seem to be sail- 
ing away from all the heart-breaking trouble that 
tore his own and other bosoms there on Beaver 
Head. 

“ He was leaning against a tumble-down wall 
which crossed the crown of the cliff, a few rods from 
where it dropped off to meet the lake. Hear by 
there was a gap in the wall, evidently once a gate, 
and a little way back an old stone house. 

“ A tall man could almost touch the eaves, but it 
was wide and long, being divided into two low but 
rather roomy halves, while its walls were thick, but 
cracked and matted with moss, through which two 
small, square windows peered out like sunken eyes. 

“ The house had been built years before, and 
finally a village had sprung up about the bay, with 
great sawmills at its inner end, where a little river 
brought the logs down from the forests. Here 
Trave Armor, the boy’s father, drifting westward 
through the pineries of Michigan and Wisconsin, 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 175 

and making now and then a futile stand against 
drink, ill-luck, and poverty, had come to work in the 
mills, hut failing through rum, drifted at last, with 
his ragged family, into the old stone hut upon the 
Head. 

“ Their progress through poverty had been pitiful 
enough, and Paul, the eldest of five children, bear- 
ing its scars upon his body, and its infamy in his 
memory, had felt, with every season as he progressed 
toward manhood, a growing sense of blight and deg- 
radation. He knew whence his lameness came ; 
that when he was a child his father once came home 
in drunkenness, and being pleaded with by the boy’s 
mother, splintered his flask of liquor on the hearth 
in rage, and that he, a baby crawling around the 
grate, had lapped at the liquid like a lion’s cub lick- 
ing greedily at blood, and that his father had caught 
him up in a drunken fury and dashed him into the 
fire, from which he had come limping thus far on 
the road of life. 

“ Often he had felt something like mortal hatred 
of his father rise within him, and that day when 
he turned from watching the lumber schooners go 
down over the blue flood, and saw his mother, worn 
with toil and faded with bitter care, bending over 


176 


TWO YOUNO INVENTORS 


her wash-tub that her children might have bread, 
an anger rose in his heart that was almost fit for 
taking human life. 

“ ‘ Mother/ he said, ‘ do you s’pose we will always 
live here ? ’ 

“ ‘ I hope not, dear/ 

“ 1 Do you think I can ever go to work in the 
mills, mother? * 

“ c I hope so, Paul; or maybe at something better. 
The doctor said, you know, when he looked at your 
knees, that if some parts that were growed together 
could be parted you would not be bothered much. 
But you would have to go away to a big city where 
they do such things, and it would cost a great deal/ 
“ ‘ Yes/ said the boy, after a little silence, 
c ’twould cost lots; but maybe something will happen 
sometime and it can be done/ 

“ ‘ Yes, something may happen/ said the mother 
soothingly; ‘ it don’t cost much to live here in this 
old house that nobody owns, and as long as I have 
strength to wash we won’t starve. Maybe sometime 
your father will quit — will be himself again/ 

“ Her voice broke and the boy got up with an 
angry tumult in his breast and went down to the 
precipice. The sun had fallen into the lake far 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 177 

on its western rim, with a flat mass of clouds lying 
over it like a dull bed of coals. But he took no 
note of the seeming prophecy of storm; he was re- 
volving in a blind kind of a way that if his father 
were not in the world his mother and they would go 
back to her people in the East, and all might 
be bright and joyous again. But she would never 
go as long as his father lived and was help- 
less in the chains of his galling habits. She 
clung too fondly to what was gentle in the man 
to set him adrift, or ever cease to hope that 
something might at last save him. And the boy 
himself, responsive to the ties of nature, felt a throb 
of pity fly to his heart when he thought of death 
for the one who had given him even so hurt and 
hateful a life. 

“ After a time when the day had come nearer to 
its close, he roused himself from his brooding stupor 
and turned toward the house. The west was now a 
vast bank of dead and smoldering fire, and he noticed 
that a ship seemed sailing directly into it, looking 
strangely black and motionless against the dull, red 
flare. Then he suddenly bethought him of his 
mother, and limped quickly up the pathway to the 
door. 


178 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


“ ‘ Can I help you any more, mother? ’ he asked. 

“‘Yes, Paul; we’ll empty the tubs now. I’ll 
hang out the clothes in the morning, and try and 
get the millmen’s shirts done. Did you notice 
which way your father went this morning, dear? ’ 

“ ‘ Up along the shore, I guess, mother. He took 
the rifle in the boat with him.’ 

“ ‘ Did you notice — was he — had he — been drink- 
ing?’ 

“ ‘ I don’t know,’ said the boy, without looking 
up. ‘ He sold the fish he got yesterday, I guess.’ 

“ After that they were silent. In a little time 
their meager supper was over, and darkness fell. 
It was singularly warm and still, and after putting 
the children to sleep, the mother went out and lis- 
tened. Paul was leaning upon the ruined wall with 
his face turned seaward, and nothing stirred the 
silence save the faint whispering of waters out 
in the darkness. The atmosphere seemed utterly 
becalmed. But suddenly as they listened there 
came a little puff of wind like something invisible 
fleeing before the storm, then a sort of seething rose 
far overhead, as if the clouds were turning in help- 
less fear about the sky, and the lake began to chop 
and purr like an unseen animal whetting its teeth 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 179 

in the darkness. In a moment the few remaining 
stars were ingulfed, and in another moment there 
came a shivering crash, and the whole scene leaped 
into view. 

“ 1 Oh, God ! 9 cried the woman, starting forward, 
and Paul, with a faintness rushing over him with 
thought of the wish he had made in his heart, knew 
that she was praying for his father, out in the double 
darkness of his evil weakness and the gathering 
terrors of the night. 

“ Together they hurried in and made the doors 
and windows fast against the coming storm. In a 
moment it broke, and roared and lashed across the 
cliff for hours, while the mother, with white face, 
went to and fro, soothing the children, and turning 
now and then as if she would go out into the storm 
and find the one she feared might never come again. 
Paul’s eyes followed her troubled face with a look 
of pleading terror. Suddenly he seized the latch. 

“ ‘ Mother, Pm going to the shore ! 9 he said. 

“ ‘Ho, child, no ! 9 she cried. 

“ 6 Oh, mother, I must! I must! Father may 
come ! ’ and he sprang out into the tempest. 

“ At first he was thrown from side to side and 
dashed against the house by the wind, but presently 


180 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


got his feet and went reeling through the falling 
torrents down the hillside, and came upon the beach. 

“ The lake seemed alive with leaping ridges as the 
lightning fell, and along the base of the Head they 
burst at times into lurid fire. The boy drew back 
before it; but his father was out there — out there 
where all things rolled together in convulsion, and 
he clung in the teeth of the tempest straining his 
ear and eye upon the waters. Suddenly an object 
shone in the glare; now all was swallowed up in 
night; there it came again — a boat! And he ran 
into the very arms of the billows to meet it as a long 
wave hurled it high upon the beach. With a leap 
he was beside it, and when the lightning came again, 
he saw it was his father’s boat, but — empty! 

“ A shock of horror passed through him ; his wish 
had come true ! Suddenly he seemed to hear voices 
calling. How they seemed in the roaring wood 
across the bay; now far out to sea; then high up in 
heaven. It must be his fancy, he thought, or the 
wind wailing in the holes and hollows of the cliff. 
He passed around toward the front of the Head and 
listened, but the blast roared in his ears, and the 
noise of the inrolling flood was so great he could not 
hear distinctly. 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 181 

u But unspeakably fearful it was ; his father out 
there in the wallowing waters! A picture of the 
man more vivid than life came into the boy’s excited 
mind; his tall stature, stooping shoulders, ragged 
clothes, and laughing, vagabond air; his native good 
humor, save when liquor made him harsh; his love 
for children, and dogs, and hunting, and how, when 
he did not drink, he was the best axman and the 
strongest man in all the region. Ah, how darkly it 
all had ended! 

“ But presently while he was thinking, the wind 
lulled, and a voice leaped out from the very base of 
the Head in a long, quivering cry for help. His 
blood bounded and stood still; then the cry came 
again, rising above the clashing elements like a peal 
of anguish. Ah, it was his father’s voice! and his 
blood leaped forward again with a great thrill, and 
forgetful of his lameness he ran in close to the 
bursting billows and began to climb the face of the 
Head. It seemed an attempt fit for something mad, 
for all below him lay a boiling abyss, lashing and 
thundering and leaping after him; but he had no 
time for fear; was not his father calling for succor 
somewhere out there in that abyss of noise and 
commotion? 


182 


TWO YOUNG INVENTOBS 


“ He knew every hole and shelf in the face of the 
precipice, and soon by the aid of the lightning 
flashes he was on a ledge leading to the voice. It 
was a frightful place. Once he slipped and hung 
over the edge of the shelf, very close to death. A 
thick sweat broke out upon him, and his heart jarred 
his side with every stroke. After that he went for- 
ward more carefully, waiting for the lightning 
flashes and feeling his way with trembling hands. 
Suddenly the clouds broke open to a great height, 
and there swam the moon in peaceful fields of violet, 
the serrate edges of the long rift like a cake of silver 
broken apart. 

“ The rain had almost ceased; only a few drops 
fell into the boy’s white face as he lifted it to the 
light, and the voice broke out afresh. He shouted a 
reply, but seemingly could not reach his father’s 
ear, and trembling and panting he crept onward. 
In a moment he came to a jutting point, and, creep- 
ing carefully around it, emerged upon a little plat- 
form of stone. There the shelf came apparently to 
an end, and as he turned about, eager to find 
a further way, the voice sprang out almost at his 
feet. He all but leaped into the billows with joy 
and fright. 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 183 

“ In an instant he was down upon his knees peer- 
ing over the brink, and there, almost in reach of 
his hand, was his father’s upturned face! He was 
standing upon one foot in a break in one of the stone 
pillars that leaned against the cliff, with his arms 
about its shattered top and within the protecting 
circle of his arms, sat a thin-faced, yellow-haired 
child. 

“ It was the strangest, wildest picture Paul 
Armor had ever seen. 

11 ‘ Oh, father, don’t you let go ! I’ll save you 
yet! ’ he cried. 

“ With the first look the child stretched out her 
arms to him, and a light that was more than the 
radiance of the moon broke over the man’s pale 
face. 

“ ‘ I might maybe get out of here but for the 
child,’ he said. ‘ But I feel purty wabbly, son. If 
I let go I’ll leave her sitting here, and maybe you 
can fish her up some way.’ 

“ ‘ Oh, father,’ cried the boy, with straining eyes, 
‘ don’t you let go ! I’ll save you.’ 

“ i I won’t let go if I can help it, son,’ the man 
said faintly. ‘But you’d best get a rope; maybe 
you can save the child, if you can’t save me.’ 


184 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


“ < Yes, father!’ And Paul had started on his 
perilous journey across the face of the cliff again. 

“ As the boy crept back along the ledge his heart 
beat very fast. Up and down, in and out, panting, 
hurrying, he passed above the turmoil of waters. 
Would they be there when he returned? Oh, for 
wings, or for even sound limbs! But how came his 
limbs so halting? He did not think of that now, 
with his father, who had maimed him, hanging there 
so near to death. Pity had turned the noisome 
current of hate aside, and he was being carried for- 
ward on the ever-saving, ever-healing stream of 
love. 

“ In a few minutes, that seemed as many hours, 
he came down upon the beach. His blood was fairly 
leaping, and he ran along the sand, pitching forward 
in his lameness and looking pallid and wild in the 
moonlight. A little way beyond his father’s broken 
boat he came to a sort of landing. He remembered 
having seen a rope there. Yes, there it lay, coiled 
and wet on the platform. Scrambling up, and 
snatching the rope, he hurried down the beach. 
Without waiting to take breath or to steady him- 
self, he plunged into the spray, and climbing above 
the surf, took his dangerous way across the Head. 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 185 

“ Onward he went, creeping along the dripping 
ledge, with now and then the moonlight breaking 
through upon him. As he approached the beetling 
point that hid his father and the unknown child 
from view he paused with fluttering pulse and lis- 
tened. hTo sound save the long rolling crash of the 
incoming surges met his ear. Tremblingly he crept 
on around the point and looked down; there they 
hung! and his heart gave a great leap at the sight. 
The man with closed eyes seemed sinking down, but 
the child still held him fast about the neck. 

“ ‘ Father! father! ' shouted the boy, with warn- 
ing voice, 1 I've come! I’ve got the rope! ' 

“ The man roused himself with pitiful smile and 
the boy made a hurried noose of the rope and cast it 
down. The father steadied himself and at length 
got the noose over the child's head and around its 
body. Then he kissed her and said falteringly: 

“ ‘ I don't know who you are, little thing, an' I 
ain't made out a word you’ve said, but you've saved 
me so far and maybe if we get out of here, you’ll 
keep me from something worse. Good-bye! ' 

“ Then, grasping the rope tightly, Paul began to 
pull and the child swung away from the man and 
hung over the plunging waters with wide, terrified 


186 TWO YOUNG INVENTOKS 

eyes. Slowly he drew the child up, and the man 
watched until she was safe on the ledge, then he 
said: 

“ ‘ Now, son, Til see what good I am! ’ and he 
struggled to get upon the end of the leaning stone 
column. 

“ Again and again he essayed it; he was so numb 
he could scarcely move. The boy watched him, 
with every muscle rigid from sympathy. The 
action seemed to warm and freshen the man, and at 
last he got upon the pillar’s end and sat still, with 
his forehead resting against the cool wall before him. 

“ ‘ Now, son/ he said, when he had gotten his 
breath, ‘ take all the time you need for getting the 
little thing onto dry ground. I’ll be restin’ while 
you’re gone. Don’t hurry, I’ll be restin’. Keep 
the rope ’round the child an’ if she falls maybe you 
can save her again. I’d rather you’d save her than 
me. Good-bye! ’ 

“ Slowly and warily the boy picked his way 
through the curling mist, leading the frightened 
child along the dizzy path. At last they came down 
and out upon the beaten sand, and as he took the 
rope from round the child’s quivering form he 
heard a cry, and looking up he saw his mother com- 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 187 

ing down the rain-gullied bluff, with the red glare 
of dawn breaking over the edge of the cliff behind 
her. 

“ ‘ Oh, mother, he’s come ! Father’s come ! ’ 
cried the boy. ‘ He’s just round the Head. I’ll 
bring him in a minute.’ 

“ The woman’s haggard face lit up as she ran 
forward to meet him. When she saw the child she 
stopped short. 

“ ‘ Why — why — where did that little thing come 
from? ’ she asked. 

“ c I don’t know, mother. Father said she’d been 
holding him round the neck and keeping him from 
drowning,’ said the boy, and he looked at the shiver- 
ing waif with awe. 

“ The child sat still upon the rock where Paul 
had placed her, and looked from one face to the 
other. Her clothes were fine and thin, but torn 
and wet, and her tangled curls clung about her thin 
neck like yellow silk. Her blue eyes were very ap- 
pealing, and the woman dropped down upon her 
knees beside the child with a great pang of pity in 
her heart. 

“ ‘ Oh, you poor, drowned, starving little thing,’ 
she said. ‘ What’s become of your mammy?’ 


188 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


“ The child gazed at her wonderingly a moment, 
and murmured something in a foreign tongue. 

“ ‘ Mercy ! ’ exclaimed the woman, 1 it can’t speak 
English; it’s a foreigner ! 9 and she put her faded 
shawl about the child compassionately. 

“ Suddenly the boy started up. ‘ I’m going now, 
mother,’ he said. * I’m going after father ! ’ and 
before the woman could comprehend he snatched 
the rope and ran up in the spray and was swallowed 
from her sight. The act appalled her, and she 
sprang screaming after him, hut she slipped on the 
wet rocks and the plunging surges beat her back. 
To her mother heart it was as if he had passed into 
a billowing fire. The moments seemed intermin- 
able; would he never come back from that batter- 
ing, pounding gulf of noise? 

“ A half hour of terror went by; then suddenly 
he burst out of the wreathing spray above her with 
a joyful cry, much as if he had opened his eyes in 
heaven. Behind him came his father, drooping and 
staggering, and husband and wife fell into each 
other’s arms and stood swaying and sobbing on the 
sand, while Paul crept away, tired and broken and 
weeping by himself. 

“Ah! he had been through great peril; he had 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 189 

done a noble deed; he had brought back his self- 
respect ; but had not the old hovering darkness come 
along with it? 

“ When Trave Armor, following his wife, bent 
his tall, shambling form and went weakly in through 
the low doorway of his humble home, a bright fire 
of pine knots was flaming and popping in the fire- 
place, and a pot of coffee, sitting in the hot ashes at 
one corner of the fire, was breathing sweet fragrance 
from its mouth. A wave of inexpressible thankful- 
ness swept through him at the sight. The children 
clustered about him with exclamations of wonder, 
and the mother, placing the little stranger in a chair 
before the pleasant flames, went into the other room. 
The giant-like father, rubbing his hands before the 
grateful blaze, looked at the children with beaming 
face. 

“ ‘ Wal, my hearties/ he said, ‘ you see I’ve 
brought you a little sister.’ 

u The child, as if somewhat frightened with the 
circle of roguish faces, put out her hands appeal- 
ingly, and the big man drew her into his lap and 
crooned over her like a woman. 1 Don’t you be 
afraid, little thing, don’t you be afraid,’ he said. 
‘If your pap and mammy never come you’ll be 


190 


TWO YOUNG INVENTOKS 


always safe with us. We had a little gal once, 
almost your size an’ heft, and — yes, she looked al- 
most like you. We called her Breeze, and I guess 
we’ll call you Gale, for you’re almost like her.’ 

“ The child looked trustingly up in his face, but 
it was plain she did not understand him. 

“ The children were pressing about them and the 
father drew Lannie upon his other knee. The 
pudgy little fellow looked at the pale-faced child a 
moment, then, touching her thin hand, he looked up 
in the man’s face and lisped: 

“ c She’s Lannie’s sister ! Lannie’s new sister ! ’ 
and the other children jumped up and down in 
glee. 

“ The mother heard it as she entered, and when 
she came forward with the tiny dress and shoes that 
had once clad little Breeze, her heart was full. 
Taking the willing child to her breast she passed 
into the other room to clothe her in dry garments, 
and the big, ragged man leaned forward and poked 
the fire, and the children wondered, for his eyes 
were wet. 

“ Presently the woman came back, and, with a 
quick step, set about getting breakfast. Armor re- 
mained leaning forward, steaming, and gazing dimly 


THE HERO OF BEAYER HEAD 191 

into the bed of burning knots. Presently bis bead 
sank down as if it were lead; he bad fallen asleep 
from utter exhaustion. Presently his wife touched 
bis arm and told him breakfast was ready. He 
awoke, and an expression of shame and unworthiness 
passed across his face. When they were seated he 
ate but little, but drank great draughts of coffee. 

“ c You see, Lucy, when I dropped out of Deep 
Creek into the lake/ he said, in answer to her in- 
quiry, < I smelt a storm coming. I wasn’t very clear 
in the upper story, I guess, but I thought I could 
make the bay before the storm struck, and I rowed 
tremendous. But the hurricane came on like a 
racehorse, and with the first scoop it lifted me and 
the boat clean out of the water. I hung in her, 
though a good many times I thought she was going 
upside down, but she kept on her bottom some way 
and ran on in the darkness and lightning like all 
possessed. I nabbed holt of the rudder and kept 
righting her when the lightning fell, which was 
about every second. The sea looked white like a 
kettle of water boiling over, and suddenly I saw a 
ship was about to run over me from behind. It 
was flying afore the wind like all creation and just 
missed me. I heard things ripping and breaking on 


192 


TWO YOUNG INVENTOKS 


her and shouts and screaming as she passed; then 
something came crashing against my boat and 
knocked me out of it. The next second I saw by 
the lightning that it was a big platform or staging 
of boards, and I climbed onto it. As soon as I got 
my breath I heard something crying by me and 
looked around, and lo and behold! this little thing 
was laying there tied fast to the platform. I got 
her loose and she caught me around the neck and 
held me fast, and do you know, Lucy, in my scare 
and confusion I thought it was Breeze? Well, I 
held to her and she held to me, and I thought, my 
soul and body, we’d be thrown off the pitching, roll- 
ing raft, but it went straight for the Head, and all 
of a sudden I looked up and saw the front of the cliff 
as white and terrible in the lightning as the face of 
a corpse, and the next minute we struck with a 
crash, and me and the child was shot up one of the 
pillars of stone, and I clenched it and got a footing 
and hung there till Paul come with the rope.’ 

“A heavy silence fell between them. He longed 
to speak of the boy’s bravery, but in the face of his 
own dissolute life the words stuck in his throat. 
Presently he arose. 

u 6 I guess, Lucy, I’ll go up to the wharf and see 


THE HERO OF BEATER HEAD 193 

Eric Iverson/ he said. ‘ Mebby I can get him to 
come round this way to-night and talk with the 
little thing. Em thinking she’s Norwegian, and 
mebby he can find out where she’s from.’ 

“ ‘ Yes, Trave,’ said the woman. 

“ Then he stooped down and said : ‘ Good-bye, 
little canary; I’m going to fetch some one that can 
understand your piping.’ The child looked at him 
wonderinglv a moment, then put her arms about his 
neck and kissed him. 

“ ‘ Oh, Trave,’ said the wife, i you won’t drink 
any more, will you? See, it’s like as if Breeze had 
come back from heaven and was begging you with 
kisses not to be bad any more,’ and suddenly the wife 
was crying on his breast. 

“ The man gave a groan of wild contrition and 
helplessness. 

u ( No, Lucy, I won’t ever touch liquor again,’ he 
said. ‘I’ll strive against it, an’ won’t ever touch 
it no more ! ’ And he went away with clenched 
fists, swearing in his soul that liquor should never 
pass his lips again. But alas, for the man who once 
sets himself on fire with this inhuman thirst! His 
will is turned to ashes in the flames. 

“ Paul came home at noon with a shining string 


194 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


of fish, but the father did not come. When dinner 
was over the boy shouldered a big bag of laundry 
and started for the mills. 

“ ‘ I’ll bring him home, mother, if I can/ he said. 
1 Don’t worry/ and he went limping on. 

“ When he had delivered the clothes, he turned 
off into the town. There all the streets ran 
shambling down and converged upon the wharves, 
and he went up one and down another looking vainly 
for his father. Presently, with a thrill of horror, 
he saw the man come reeling from a grogshop down 
by the waterside. An aching heaviness spread 
through all the boy’s being as he stood dumbly 
watching him. What had it all come to, his saving 
this man and bringing him back into the world? 
With a bitter throb he started toward him. The 
man saw him coming, as he stood leering about, and 
started down the shore toward home. The boy fol- 
lowed, hoping in some way to turn his father aside 
that his mother might be spared the torturing sight. 
Suddenly, as the man zig-zagged forward, he turned 
and confronted the boy. 

“ ‘ Son, you’re a trump, and I want the money 
you got for the washing/ he said thickly. 

“ Paul gave a cry of horror and sprang back, but 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 195 

in his lameness he stumbled and fell, and the father 
jumped heavily upon him. 

u ‘ Give me the money! ” he yelled wildly, as they 
struggled; but the boy only gave a pitiful cry, and 
got up with him. Then they began to struggle as 
they stood, writhing, reeling, striking, and suddenly 
they plunged headlong toward the water. There a 
cup-like dent in the bank caught and held them, but 
the boy fell beneath and was partly stunned, and 
the man got upon him with his knees and held him 
while he tore the money from his pocket. As he 
got up the boy, like one in a terrible dream, clutched 
him desperately about the knees, but the rum- 
crazed father struck him a cruel blow in the face and 
he fell back senseless at the water’s edge. 

u It seemed a long time before consciousness re- 
turned to him. The saws sang on at the mills, the 
clouds blew over, the tide running outward licked 
softly at the boy’s hair, but he lay still with his 
bleeding face turned back in the sunshine, a mute 
protest against the evils of the cup. 

“ After a time he moaned like one in a troubled 
sleep, and turned himself. The cooling water 
touched his face, and he awoke. Then it all came 
back to him — the struggle and the dreadful hour, 


196 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


and he got upon his feet and staggered up the hank. 
He looked up the shore to the town, and there his 
father was, a helpless sot, reeling from the grog- 
shop by the waterside. The boy’s blue eyes began 
to blaze ; his very blood seemed to curdle with hatred 
and loathing. The man came a little way down the 
shore where some boats were rocking and tugging 
at the chains which held them. Evidently he pro- 
posed getting into one of them to sleep his drunken- 
ness away. 

u The boy watched him walk waveringly out upon 
the landing-plank to a large four-oared boat. The 
chain hung loosely over the stake at the end of the 
plank, and the man’s foot caught under it, lifting 
it from the stake, and he fell forward into the boat, 
giving it a great lurch outward. 

“ The wind had been blowing steadily from the 
land all day, and long, crested swells were running 
northward as far as the eye could reach. The man 
from being stunned, or in a stupor, did not rise, and 
the boat began drifting outward. The oars had 
been removed, and the boy turned about with a noise 
in his ears like gurgling water. The sun seemed to 
get dark to him; the greatest struggle of his life 
had come. 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 197 

“ He started to get the boat at the Plead and save 
the man; then he stood still with his fists clenched, 
and watched the boat come down the bay. Ho one 
seemed to notice it, and outward it drifted, borne 
on the long, rolling swells. It passed by the boy, 
and he wavered and strained in the conflicting cur- 
rents of feeling that beset him. Should he save 
him? He saved him but a few hours before! Lo, 
his reward! 

“ The boat drifted through the mouth of the bay; 
there the unbroken wind quickened the swells, and it 
passed into the open deep. Hundreds of miles of 
water spread away before it, and without food or 
oars the unconscious father went outward into the 
glimmering waste. 

“ At last the boat dwindled to a speck and died 
in the blue gulf, and a great white cloud shut down 
upon it like a marble covering to a grave. At that a 
poignant sense of separation fell upon the boy, the 
first sharp throe of anguish as the bond that nature 
had placed between them parted. He stood appalled 
at the deed that he had done. A vision of the man 
starving, raving, drowning, rose before him, and 
with a cry of terror, he broke through the hate and 
rage that bound him and ran toward the Head. 


198 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


“ Their own boat was lying there with prow upon 
the yellow sand. He pushed it out and leaped in 
and spread out the oars, those trusty water-wings 
that were to move him upon the wildest, strangest 
journey of his life. He swept her out upon the 
swells. Thank fortune, his arms and chest were 
well-nigh as thickly muscled as a man’s! His poor 
halting legs would not be needed in this bitter race! 
He thought of his mother and looked up at Beaver 
Head. Carl, his little brother, was standing upon 
its verge. 

“ ‘ Tell mother that father has drifted out to sea, 
and that Fm going after him! ’ shouted Paul. ‘ Oh, 
Carl, tell her I’ll bring him back to her if I live — if 
I — live ! 9 and he laid the boat about upon the water 
and sent her out with all his strength. 

“ ‘ Tell mother I let him go ! Tell her I couldn’t 
wait to see her! Oh, Carl, be good to her if me and 
father never come back — no — more! ’ Then the 
voice failed; the boy upon the cliff could hear it no 
longer, and turned and ran toward the house, and 
Paul went outward upon the swells. 

“ He sat facing the great furrowed front of the 
Head as he pulled. Would he ever see it again? 
All that he loved was up there on the Head, save 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 199 

the poor father tossing toward death. He saw 
figures running to and fro upon the height; his 
mother was among them. A choking lump rose into 
his throat, but he never once slackened his desperate 
stroke. Outward he went, outward, outward, as if 
life and hope lay only on the dangerous central sea. 
The Head began to sink; slowly it went down, but 
his eyes never left it for a moment. Soon its top 
alone was visible, a bluish spot with moving specks 
upon it. Then slowly that, too, went down, and re- 
appeared and sank again, and he was alone upon the 
wide, mysterious waters. 

“ He closed his eyes, his breath coming hard with 
the struggle, and a great wretchedness fell upon 
him as the land, with all it held, was parted from 
him. But he did not pause; outward he went, cry- 
ing in his heart to God for time, for daylight, in 
which to save the one he had lost. 

“ He pulled with every muscle strained well-nigh 
to breaking. At last he felt himself turning sick 
with labor, and fell upon his knees and dashed his 
face and head with water. He was dripping with 
sweat and his heart was fluttering from long and 
violent action. He thrust his hot arms in the water 
to the shoulders as he hung over the side of the boat 


200 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


and his dizziness passed. Then he leaped up again 
and pulled feverishly forward. The first great 
sense of crime and pollution never lifted itself from 
his spirit for a moment. A deadly exhaustion be- 
gan to creep upon him, but he could not rest ; the boat 
kept leaping outward, and over all the face of the 
water there was no sound save the oars working in 
the locks, his laboring breath, and the low slap and 
gurgle of water under the advancing prow. 

“ At last the sun began to go down, and he arose 
in the boat and strained his eyes again across the 
waters. But nothing was visible and he sank down, 
ill with agony and exhaustion. The sky seemed to 
turn round above him and the lake seemed to shift 
from side to side. He was a pitiable picture as he 
sat there, clutching the boat in his dizziness. His 
hat was gone, one arm was bare to the shoulder 
•where his shirt had been torn away in his struggle 
with his father, his face was streaked with blood and 
his hair hung about his throbbing temples in sweat' 
dampened strands. His tongue was like dust in his 
mouth, and his throat seemed parched. He caught 
the oars and sent the little craft desperately om 
ward. 

“ Presently he stood up and looked abroad agaim 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 201 

Half the sun was in the lake, and a great road of 
gold ran from his boat into the very heart of it. 
Suddenly, as he gazed, a moving dot entered the 
golden path and began drifting into the sun. A 
piercing cry of joy leaped from the boy’s lips. He 
seized the oars and the boat flew onward. He was 
far to the south of his father, and miles and miles 
of water lay between them; but that one glimpse 
was more refreshing than days of rest and beakers 
of wine. Oh, if God would but stay the sunset, 
would but keep the day alive another hour! But 
even while he prayed the light began to wane, 
shadows rose out of the mighty lake and huddled to- 
gether here and there, the westward moving dark- 
ness rolled slowly over him, and he was alone with 
the stars upon the wide, mysterious lake. 

“ Cries of despair broke from his lips at last, a 
sickening faintness fell upon him, and his swollen 
hands dropped limp upon the oars. Heaven was 
against him. He was a murderer ! A murderer ! 

“ Slowly the night wore on, every moment a thorn 
pressed deep into his heart by remorse and fear. 
What would the gray dawn bring? Would it bring 
his innocence back to him? At last his head began 
to fall from side to side, and at times he seemed 


202 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


pitching from the boat, and ere long the stars looked 
down pityingly into his upturned face, as, asleep in 
the stern, with one swollen hand upon the helm and 
the other trailing over the side of the boat, he went 
plunging onward into mystery and gloom. 

“ Eric Iverson and a comrade had been absent 
six days upon the lake searching for the lost man and 
his son, and the people of Millwood began to won- 
der if they, too, had gone down to rise no more. But 
the two men had taken plenty of provisions, and 
many who knew of Eric’s tender heart said it would 
be long ere they returned could they bring no tid- 
ings to the sorrowing woman and her children on 
the frowning Head. Ho storm had come; only a 
steady wind rolling the shining swells forever out- 
ward. Hay and night it blew, and incoming 
schooners had to make long tacks to right and left 
that they might enter the little harbor. 

“ Over the hut upon the cliff the hours of dread 
and sharp expectancy had passed, and now the gloom 
that comes of settled, certain death seemed creeping 
on. The mother, torn with grief and apprehension, 
through the first days, could do nothing. She 
seemed to live day and night there at the edge of 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 203 

the precipice, with her hungry eyes searching the 
wide, mocking reaches of the lake. 

“ But now she began to work and wash again, 
moving about much like one in a dream. Little 
Gale, though her eyes would sometimes fill with 
tears, played with the children under the trees, hap- 
pily forgetful of the dark shadow of sorrow that lay 
upon the place. 

“ It seemed to the poor mother that the rescuers 
would never return, and the blighted look grew in 
her face and her eyes looked sunken and anxious as 
she lifted them hour by hour to the wide world of 
water. 

“ Other mothers, touched by pity, came to help the 
drunkard’s broken family, bringing food and cloth- 
ing, and as the time passed the village babbled with 
dark prophecies of shipwreck for Eric and con- 
jecture as to the fatal phases of this strange race 
for life upon the inland sea. 

“ The men at Eric’s wharf where he had been 
foreman of the lumber loaders so long, looked many 
times each day toward the west, thinking of their 
absent leader, and wives and mothers, standing at 
the gates or in the doorways of the cottages upon the 
height about the bay thought often of the lonely 


204 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


family over on the Head, and turned their eyes earn- 
estly toward the far horizon line. 

“ On the seventh day the wind shifted and lulled, 
and just before sunset the mother came wearily 
down the path and stood looking out upon the shin- 
ing flood. Her heart seemed numb with longing. 
When would she wake from this terrible dream? 

“ The children were playing down on the sands 
below, and suddenly Carl gave a shout of joy; the 
mother looked up, and there, seemingly not three 
miles away, was Eric’s boat! She gazed, trembling 
from head to foot. Yes, it was surely Eric’s boat, 
battered, and with the sails patched and torn. 
Breathlessly she hurried down and came among the 
children, where, whispering and clinging to each 
other’s hands they waited at the water’s edge. 

“ Just as the sun was sinking Eric’s yacht swept 
through the mouth of the little bay. The children 
held their breath, and the mother strained her pale 
face outward. She did not see the men waving 
their hats up at the wharves, nor the wives and 
mothers watching from the doorways about the bay. 
The boat was all there was in the world to her. 

u How slowly it came ! YT ere Trave and her 
lame boy there? That was Eric’s face, and there 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 205 

was his brave companion, too. What other object 
was that lying upon a litter in the how? The woman 
shook as in an ague, but even as she trembled and 
questioned the boat rounded on the glassy field and 
swept up to the landing by the Head and Eric, weary 
and worn, leaped out and made her fast. 

u But the woman did not see him; she was cling- 
ing to the side of the boat and straining her eyes 
down upon that muffied figure in the bow. Men 
came running from the bluff, and the litter was gen- 
tly lifted out, and there, looking like death itself, 
lay Trave Armor, clothed in his rags and the dying 
light of the day. 

“ The woman threw herself upon her knees beside 
him and called him piteously, the children crowded 
forward with frightened whispers and the men stood 
about with averted faces. In a moment, in answer 
to her calling, Armor’s eyes opened weakly; then 
with a kind of a cry, he tried to lift himself toward 
her, but was too weak. 

u ( Oh, Trave ! ’ moaned the woman, ‘ where is 
Paul? Where did you leave him ? 9 

“ ‘ He was lost, Lucy ! He was lost ! He saved 
me, but he — was — lost ! 9 

“ The woman stared at him for a moment blankly, 


206 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


then with a cry of desolation she hid her face upon 
the sick man’s breast and wept. 

“ Very gently Eric lifted her up and led her away 
to the hut upon the cliff. The men slowly followed, 
bearing the man upon the litter, and laid him down 
in his humble home. In a little time Carl came in 
with the village doctor. The physician placed a 
flask of whisky to the exhausted man’s lips, but 
when its fumes smote the patient’s nostrils, such a 
look of terror, hatred, and loathing came into the 
sufferer’s face, that the doctor fell back before it in 
wonder. 

“ * Take it away! Destroy it!’ hoarsely cried 
Trave Armor. * Don’t, for the love of heaven, ever 
offer that to the like of me again. Do you expect to 
heal me with poison? Oh, think what it has done to 
us ! ’ and his rage fell into a broken-hearted moan. 
‘ Don’t ask me to drink it,’ he said, ‘ for I have been 
insane! I’ve tasted death! Don’t ask me to go 
no further! ’ 

“ Kind hands and sympathetic hearts brought 
food and words of comfort to the lonely place that 
night, and as the days went by the story of Paul 
Armor’s heroism spread from mouth to mouth. His 
father would never drink again, they said, his thirst 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 207 

was dead, love had followed, and in the face of blows 
and injury, had brought him back and turned his 
feet toward the peaceful kingdom of a virtuous 
life. 

“ Time passed. The saws in the big mills kept up 
their hollow, mellow hum, the schooners sailed in 
and out the little port, and Trave Armor lay sick 
in the hut upon the hill. Slowly his strength came 
back, but his heart was like lead when he thought 
of Paul, and the mother’s feet dragged heavily as 
she went about her work. One day he called the 
sad woman to his bedside and said very gently: 

‘ Lucy, can you hear it now? Mebby you could 
bear it better if you heard once how brave our poor 
boy went down.’ 

“ The mother sat down and hid her face against 
the pillow by his head, and he went sorrowfully 
on. 

“ ‘ I guess I abused him before it happened. It 
all seems like an awful dream now, but I guess I 
took the money from him you earned washing, and 
struck him, too; but I was crazy, Lucy! The drink 
did it ! Then I don’t remember any more, only that 
I left him lying white and dead down there where 
we met, till I came to myself that night away out to 


208 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


sea. For a while, Lucy, I thought I had died, and 
was in that wild, awful after-life which was only 
fit for the like of me. 

“ 1 1 can’t tell you, Lucy, what I suffered after 
that; I have no words to make you see it, and it 
would only hurt you to hear it, but I know that 
morning came at last after that awful night, and I 
was all afire, and fearful sights and shapes was all 
about me, and I don’t know why I didn’t destroy 
myself and end my misery. Then that day went 
by and it was like years and years of torture, and 
night came again, and I think another day and then 
it seemed like my reason came back. But the boat 
had no oars, and I was so weak from having no food 
and from struggling and fighting with the fearful 
things that seemed pursuing me, I just lay like a 
dead man in the bottom of the boat as it went plung- 
ing I didn’t know where. 

“ ‘ But the thirst was killed, Lucy; it was burned 
out! The suffering I’d gone through had set me 
free! But when night come again I seemed freez- 
ing and a miserable sickness set in, and my head 
seemed going round and round, and everything I 
ever done in the world kept coming and going before 
me, seeming big and clear, but kind of strange as 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 209 

if it was a dream. Then I knew that daylight came 
again, but I couldn’t get up, and the sights kept com- 
ing and going, and sometimes I seemed drowning, 
when all of a sudden I saw our poor boy’s face over 
me. 

“ ‘ I hardly knew him, Lucy, he was so changed. 
He looked almost like little Breeze when she lay in 
her coffin and I thought it was part of my dreams. 
Then he said: “Father, I’ve come! I’ve come to 
save you! Don’t you know me?” And I roused 
myself and saw that it was him. Then he tried to 
get into the boat with me, but he was so weak it 
seemed like he couldn’t stand and the boats plunged 
as if they would swamp, but he held ’em together, 
and when they lunged forward he fell into the boat 
with me. In a minute he got to his knees and cried 
out wild-like : “ Oh, father, I can’t save you ! The 
oars are in the other boat! ” And away it drifted 
and we were helpless. 

“ ‘ After a while he said sort of slow like, 
“ Father, I’ve done my best. I couldn’t use the 
oars if I had ’em, my hands are so sore. Mebby you 
can steer onto some island and get saved.” Then 
I saw that his poor hands were swelled to the 
shoulders from rowing, and worn raw and bleeding, 


210 TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 

and I kissed ’em and cried over ’em, and we talked 
and forgave each other. 

“ ‘ Then he tried to steer the boat, but he couldn’t 
set up and for a long time we lay in the bottom of 
the boat like dead men. But near night he strug- 
gled up an’ said: “ Father, there’s an island ahead, 
and I guess I’ll steer onto it, because the lake has 
been getting worse for three days, and we can’t keep 
afloat much longer.” So he managed to steer for 
the island, and when we drew near it, he said again: 
“ I am afraid, father, the current is going to carry 
us by.” And he set the helm to port and tied it. 
Then he got me forward into the prow, and when we 
were about to strike the shore he held me up with 
his knees and teeth, and what he could with his poor 
hands, and when we struck he lifted and threw me 
ahead, and I fell on the shore. But it was solid rock 
where the boat struck, and he fell in the prow and 
laid still. He’d fainted, Lucy; his last drop of 
strength was gone. I got up on my knees and 
shouted with all my strength to rouse him, but he 
had no strength, Lucy; he’d given it all to me ! ’ and 
tears ran down the big man’s face, while the 
mother sobbed with her face pressed against the 
pillow. 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 211 

u ‘ Then the boat lurched/ the man went on 
huskily, ‘ and it followed the current past the island, 
and I saw him struggle up and heard him calling: 
“ Oh, father, I did my best ! I tried to bring you 
back! Mebby some ship will save you and if you 
ever reach home and I never come, tell mother I 
died innocent — I died innocent ! ” Then I couldn’t 
hear him more, and I watched the boat go further 
and further, and I saw another island off to the 
west, but just before he reached it the boat struck 
something — a bar, I guess — and sank, and I fell 
forward and knew no more, only a sort of dreaming 
movement of sights and faces, till Eric laid me down 
there on the sand by the Head, and your calling 
roused me to life again.’ 

“ His voice failed and they sat a long time weep- 
ing together in silence; and all that might ever have 
been said of praise or blame, or sorrow and love, of 
regret and new resolve, was spoken in that sound of 
falling tears. 

“ The next day was a Sabbath and all was quiet in 
Millwood. The saws rested from their snarling 
hum, the millmen, clad in fresh clothing, sat on 
the doorsills of their cottages, smoking their pipes 
and looking idly out at the blue fields of the lake, 


212 


TWO YOUNG INVENTOKS 


or, down among the fragrant stacks of lumber, sat 
whittling and talking. 

“ Over on the Head the sun shone beautifully, 
yet with little cheer, for sorrow and heavy poverty 
were there. The children felt it, and the mother 
went sadly to and fro, longing for her lame, lost 
boy. Hear noon she stood in the doorway looking 
out to sea. A big yacht, with all its white sails 
spread, blew into the little harbor, but she did not 
see it, for her eyes were wet. She was thinking 
of that island, somewhere beyond the blue horizon 
line, upon whose cruel bar her son went down. 

“ Presently footsteps came to the door and Eric 
and his comrade, with their sweethearts, entered. 
Behind them were others bearing bags and baskets, 
and the children leaped with joy. Armor arose and 
came out. His step was slow but steady, and his 
face was clear. The children, with Gale among 
them, shouted and danced with glee to see him 
grown so strong, and the big man’s face was lit with 
smiles as he looked around upon the faces of his 
friends. 

“ The shadow seemed lifted. Even the mother 
smiled; something strange and sweet was in the 


air. 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 213 

“ Suddenly there rose the noise of many voices 
near the hut, cheering and singing. Eric sprang 
up, and all stood still and harkened. The singing and 
the voices came nearer. A great light came into 
the mother’s eyes. She held her hand against her 
heart and listened. Suddenly Eric leaped out the 
door with an answering shout. They all followed 
him, and along the top of the green bluff a crowd 
poured into view, and there, borne upon the 
shoulders of the cheering men, sat Paul Armor! 

“ He was pale and weak, and his poor hands, 
swathed in white bandages, hung down over the 
men’s shoulders, but his face was like a star. Ah, 
there was his dear mother with her face wreathed 
in light and tearful smiles, and his father, looking 
as if heaven had opened. 

“ In a moment they had come together, and there 
was kissing and crying and handshaking and happy 
laughter. Then Eric noticed that little Gale was 
crying for happiness in the arms of a lady he had not 
seen before, and as soon as Paul could get his breath 
he cried: 

Mother! Father! This is the little girl’s 
mammy. She was on the steamer that took me off 
the island where I was washed ashore after the boat 


214 TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 

sank. She took care of me till we reached Duluth, 
and I brought her here. She had my knees fixed 
in the city, and, oh, mother, I am not going to be 
lame any more/ 

“ Then the handshaking and cries of surprise and 
gladness were renewed, and the millmen and the 
wharfmen swung their hats again and gave three 
mighty cheers. 

“ Trave Armor is an old man now, but since that 
day he has never tasted rum.” 

Mr. Norton paused. His eyes were moist. The 
eyes, too, of some of the listeners were wet. To 
Dannie it seemed a wondrous tale. 

“And how did that boy turn out?” he eagerly 
asked. 

“ Yes, how did he turn out? ” said Mr. Young. 

The great lawyer hesitated a moment, looking 
wistfully out the window. “ I had hoped you would 
not ask that,” he said; “ I had purposed leaving that 
to silence. But I guess the entire story is due, since 
you ask it. Well, the boy turned out just fairly 
well. You see, I told you the story as I once wrote 
it. The real name of the boy was Paul Norton — 
that is my name.” 

There were exclamations of astonishment. Sev- 


THE HERO OF BEAVER HEAD 215 

eral of the gentlemen laughingly shook the attor- 
ney’s hand. 

“ And what became of the little Norwegian 
girl? ” asked Mute. 

“ Oh, yes, I forgot to put that in the story,” re- 
plied the lawyer with a smile. “'Well, she who 
once was little Gale is Mrs. Paul Norton now! ” 


CHAPTER XI 


THE YOUNG DESERTER 

There were expressions of real gratification upon 
the happy conclusion of Mr. Horton’s story. It 
seemed indeed very nice that so much of good had 
been born of poverty and bitter trial. 

Mr. Howland again shook the lawyer’s hand. “ I 
yield the palm to you,” he laughed; “ I fancied that 
traveling salesmen had somewhat the best of the bal- 
ance of mankind in the use of the tongue, but I am 
now convinced that the honor belongs to the legal 
profession.” 

Mr. Horton thanked him laughingly. “ Hot at all, 
not at all,” he protested. u I have yet to hear a nar- 
rative of any sort better related than the story you 
told.” 

The big salesman sank back in his chair and held 
up his hands protestingly. “ Spare me these 
blushes, turn aside these bouquets ! ” he cried, and a 
general laugh went round. 

Mr. Young sat quiet. He looked at Mr. Horton 
216 


THE YOUNG DESERTER 


217 


approvingly and with keen interest for a few mo- 
ments. “ Seriously,” he said, “ that which you have 
told of yourself impresses me. I never knew before 
that your life had been a romance.” 

“ The lives of many men are romances, the lives 
of all are more or less tragedies,” said Mr. Norton. 

Mr. Young nodded assent. “ No doubt that is 
true,” he said. “ I know the story of a boy — later 
I knew the man — which, as I sat here listening to 
you gentlemen came strongly to my mind. It seems 
to me it is worth telling. I have often thought, 
should opportunity present, that I would relate it to 
some writer for publication.” 

“ Tell it! Tell it! ” was the cry that came from 
all sides. Surely the General Advertising Agent of 
a great railroad would prove himself capable and 
entertaining. 

Mr. Young sat smiling for a little space, turn- 
ing his watch-fob about in his fingers and looking 
at it. The wheels of the coach rumbled softly be- 
neath them, the vast landscape glanced by the win- 
dows, ever flowing backward toward distant Sidwell. 
Dannie’s fresh young countenance shone with happi- 
ness; he had never before fallen in such delightful 
company. 


218 


TWO YOUNG INVENTOKS 


“ Yes,” said a man in the group, “ tell the story. 
I think you will when I tell you that I ought to 
have gotten off this train about thirty miles back. I’ve 
simply been hypnotized. If this sort of thing 
continues I’m going to remain on the train 
until she gets to St. Paul. It’s a picnic, a real 
treat.” 

Mr. Howland bowed profoundly as did also Mr. 
Horton, and every one laughed. 

“ Well,” said Mr. Young, “ we certainly don’t 
want to lose your companionship. I guess I will tell 
the story.” 

All clapped their hands with enthusiasm, and Mr. 
Young began. 

“ My story,” he began, after a moment’s thought, 
“is about a boy who went to the Civil War, the 
youngest soldier, it has been claimed, that went from 
this State and carried a musket. There were two or 
three lads who went out as drummer-boys, who, I 
believe, were younger, but the chap of whom I am 
going to tell you was probably the youngest active 
fighter. 

“ He was fifteen when he enlisted, and the day 
upon which he went into his first battle, at Fort 
Donelson, was his sixteenth birthday. That was 


THE YOUNG DESERTER 


219 


February 16, 1862. When Vicksburg fell — it was 
during the siege of Vicksburg that he deserted and 
was sentenced to be shot — the boy was seventeen. 
You see, though he had been in the war at that time 
more than a year and a half, he was still a very 
young soldier. He was a tall boy when he enlisted, 
as tall as most men, though, of course, he was 
slender. 

“ He ran away to enter the service. He was a 
creature of imagination; his nature seemed built 
upon a foundation of steel springs; he simply could 
not rest. He always not only wanted to be doing 
something but he always was doing something. He 
was wild but not vicious. At the bottom of his 
heart he was tender and sentimental, but, boylike, 
he kept these promptings covered up. He loved his 
father and mother and his home as few boys ever do, 
yet his longing for action and adventure carried 
him irresistibly from them. 

cc His father owned a farm near a small town not 
so very far from the point where the Wisconsin Kiver 
pours its flood into the Mississippi. The quiet, un- 
eventful life of the farm was, naturally, very irk- 
some to a boy like Thad Mandon. He was a great 
worker, both in the fields and at his lessons, but 


220 TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 

he hunted and fished with greater zest and en- 
ergy.” 

When Mr. Young mentioned the boy’s name — 
Thad Mandon — Mute started and straightened up, 
looking at the speaker with surprise and intense in- 
terest. He leaned over near Dannie’s ear and 
whispered excitedly, “ That’s my name ! Did you 
hear it? I am Thad Mandon! ” 

Dannie could not comprehend. He looked into 
Mute’s face questioningly and then at Mr. Young. 
“ Listen,” whispered Mute, “ wait and hear what hf 
says! ” The boys bent forward all eyes and ears, 
and Mr. Young went on. 

“ James Mandon, Thad’s father, had taken a girl 
to raise. She was a pale, large-eyed, frail little 
creature as a child, and Thad’s stalwart heart en- 
shrined her. To the boy she was the sum total of all 
graceful and commendable things, and he was ready 
at any moment to stake his life in her service or de- 
fense. As she grew older, Yiolet, for that was her 
name, promised to be very beautiful. She was but 
a year younger than Thad and exercised a profound 
influence on his destiny. 

“ Thad knew all about the causes of the war. He 
was intensely patriotic. To him it seemed extra- 


THE YOUNG DESERTER 


221 


ordinarily wrong that men should wish to divide or 
destroy their own nation. The noise and rancor of 
the conflict came into the secluded corner of the 
world where he lived and fired him through and 
through. In fancy he saw armies marching, flags 
fluttering, bands playing. In imagination he heard 
thousands of feet tramping, the roar of cannon and 
the shock of arms. It all seemed wonderful, glori- 
ous. One night he could not sleep for thinking of 
it, and deep in the night arose and went to the door 
of Violet’s room and stood silently a little time, then 
to the door of his parents’ room, where he paused 
and whispered a farewell, then he stole out into the 
darkness. He stood a few moments looking up at 
the dim bulk of the house, then disappeared. The 
next evening he arrived in Madison, the capital, and 
the following morning enlisted. Tearing that his 
parents might interfere with his plans, he did not 
write to them until he was at the front. 

“ How, Thad Mandon was what the men called i a 
good laugher.’ Always when he was in pain or 
trouble or ill at ease he disguised his feelings with 
laughter. So mingled were hardihood and tender- 
ness in his nature that he instinctively adopted this 
means of covering up what seemed to him the 


222 TWO YOUNG INVENTOES 

weaker side of him. On this account his comrades 
.nicknamed him ‘ Laughing Thad. ? 

“ He laughed and sang upon the long marches 
when other men were dropping from the ranks with 
weariness; he starved without a murmur, he slept in 
the cold rain, only to waken the camp at dawn with 
a yell of merriment; but at the bottom of his heart 
was a hunger for home which was far more difficult 
to endure than all his physical hardships. Often 
when he stood on guard, looking up to the silent 
stars from some hillside, or standing alone in the 
rainy darkness in some noisome swamp, the tears 
under the friendly cover of the night would run down 
his cheeks and his heart would ache with the inten- 
sity of his longings. But when daylight came and 
he was among his comrades he was the most rollick- 
ing, dare-devil man of all. 

“ Every officer in the regiment, from colonel 
down, knew of Laughing Thad, and praised his feats 
of daring and his faithfulness. He had been the 
first man in the regiment to enter Donelson when 
the final charge was made; he had captured three 
men single-handed on one occasion and marched 
them into camp, with numerous other feats. But 
he fell at last, conquered by the gentlest emana- 


THE YOUNG DESERTER 223 

tion of the human heart — love and longing for 
home. 

“ It came about at Vicksburg. For weary weeks 
and months the men had fought and floundered in 
the swamps, had marched, intrenched, had retreated 
and flanked, had slept in the mud, had sickened and 
died, and it seemed the final victory would never 
come. But Thad kept on a brave exterior, his 
energy seemed indomitable, his deeds of reckless 
daring without end. And yet in secret his life was 
being eaten out with homesickness. It had become 
to the young fellow a sort of disease. The doctors 
called it nostalgia, I believe. His longing to see Vio- 
let and his mother and the old home was a veritable 
sickness. 

“ One day he received a letter from Violet. His 
father had gone to the war and his mother was lying 
at death’s door. c Dear Thad/ the letter ended, ‘ if 
you love your mother and me, get a furlough and 
come home.’ 

“ Then the young chap’s dissembling ceased, his 
laughter died out. He went to his captain. ‘I 
must go home,’ he said entreatingly; ‘ please help 
me to get a furlough.’ 

“ Together they went to the colonel, but he said 


224 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


kindly, but firmly; ‘ No, we need you too muck just 
now, my boy. We are granting furloughs only to 
the sick. We expect to have a great battle soon, 
and can’t spare men like you.’ 

“ That night Thad was standing guard alone in 
the darkness out on the advance line of pickets. It 
was raining softly, and a sad, crooning sound was 
made by the slow wind passing through the tree-tops. 
With strange sighings the sorrowful wind would 
start up in some far-off spot, and move from bough 
to bough, swelling almost into a wail overhead, then 
die away in an undertone of indescribable loneli- 
ness. Thad’s heart seemed breaking with home- 
sickness, and the pictures his imagination painted of 
his dying mother and the anxious Violet. The 
enemy before him was as nothing to this foe which 
was destroying that which he prized and loved the 
most. 

“ Officers might preach of patriotism and the de- 
mands of duty, but with his mother dying why 
should he remain and face the perils of the hour? 
He gripped his gun hard, the salt tears trickled down 
his face, and he struggled desperately against his 
inclination, but at last, with a smothered cry of 
agony, he dashed his musket on the ground and 


THE YOUNG DESERTER 


225 


walked off swiftly through the darkness. Ten 
days later, footsore and weary, he opened the door 
of his father’s house. 

“ Iiis mother was alive but unconscious. Two 
days and nights of incessant care and watching went 
by, then she opened her eyes and saw his face and 
smiled. She kissed him once and whispered a faint 
welcome home, and then sank away into sleep again, 
a sleep from which she never wakened more. 

“ Three days later she was buried and the next 
morning Thad was arrested by the provost guard. 
Then for ’the first time he seemed to realize what 
he was — a deserter! Sweet Violet clung about his 
neck and pleaded with the soldiers for his life. But 
they led him away. Two weeks later a court- 
martial before Vicksburg tried him, found him 
guilty of deserting his post of duty, and the sentence 
was death. Ho plea could mitigate the penalty, 
though the colonel of his regiment and his captain 
interceded for him, and told of his youth and excep- 
tional bravery and the circumstances which called 
him home. His desertion was a signal case of un- 
faithfulness while guarding an important point, and 
nothing short of death could make of his infidelity 
the terrible example which it merited. 


226 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


“ ‘ To be shot at sunrise the next day! ’ That 
was the awful verdict. As they led him away to the 
guardhouse — a deserted log cabin just inside the 
lines — he seemed to see the sentence printed in enor- 
mous black letters in the air, yet strange and difficult 
to read. He walked like one in a dream, looking at the 
black words as they moved before him. When they 
led him into the little prison he stood still, staring 
before him. One of the guards spread a blanket 
upon the floor and bade him lie down and rest. 
Mechanically he stretched himself upon the blanket, 
laid his brown wrist across his eyes and remained 
motionless for hours. 

“ ( To be shot in the morning at sunrise ! ’ The 
sentence repeated itself in his brain a thousand 
times, hammering slowly and sadly like his heart. 
He seemed not moved at all by emotion or excite- 
ment; only a long train of dim forms and faces, 
places and deeds, conversations and incidents, twin- 
ing and intertwining with that slowly throbbing 
train of words, and forever beating their way slowly 
through his numbed and weary brain. At length he 
lay in a dull drowse, the black words died slowly 
down to what seemed a line of burning candles, these 
dwindled slowly and one by one went out; he turned 


THE YOUNG DESERTER 227 

himself upon his side and with a restful murmur of 
contentment slept. 

“ After a time he stirred ; his shoulder and 
side ached from the hard floor; he put out his hands 
to right and left, and touching the hard floor with his 
fingers, burst into broad consciousness. A cannon 
boomed not far away. ‘ To be shot at sunrise ! ’ 
The words smote through him like a sheet of flame. 
He bounded up and for a moment stood trembling. 
Then he began walking slowly up and down, dully 
picturing the scene of his execution. He seemed 
to see the sun lifting itself from the woods to the 
eastward, the twelve blue-clad soldiers with muskets 
leveled at his breast, and the strange expression of 
their eyes looking along the gun-barrels. How 
would the lead feel when it rained into his bosom? 
Would any of the men know him? Would they not 
avert their faces with shame when Laughing Thad 
was being shot like a dog? 

“ This last made his heart leap and his blood burn 
in his veins. It was the most poignant thorn that 
pierced and quickened him. He stood still and 
listened; there was heavy firing along the front. 
He looked out the little window near the door; 
lights were moving here and there through the 


228 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


gloom, and he could hear the muffled tramp of mov- 
ing columns. 

“ From the distant beleaguered city came many 
noises. Suddenly a great roar of musketry swept 
from right to left along the lines, then ran roaring 
back again. Ah, if he could only go out there and 
die at the front like a man instead of at sunrise like 
a dog! His heart heat against his side like a ham- 
mer, shaking him from head to foot. The enemy 
must he making an assault, attempting to break out 
through the ever-tightening lines, and the boys were 
driving them back ! And he was not there, but shut 
up like a dangerous, hated rat! He caught hold of 
the door and wrenched at it; it was fastened. He 
stood still again and listened. How and again some- 
thing fell upon the roof as he remembered hickory 
nuts used to drop in autumn upon the barn at home. 

“ In a moment the solution came to him ; spent 
bullets were falling upon the roof. The Union 
soldiers must be falling back. 

“ ( We are getting whipped/ he cried. ‘ Oh, God, 
please let me out of this so I can help! ’ 

“ He tore at the door like a madman; then turned 
and dashed the window into pieces with his naked 
fist, and leaped out. 


THE YOUNG DESERTER 


229 


“ The gray of coming dawn was stealing over 
the fields. He looked about him; the guard lay 
dead near the door, a stray bullet in his brain! 

“A great hope leaped up in Thad; for the mo- 
ment his blood ran fire. With eager, trembling 
fingers he stripped ofi the dead man’s accouter- 
ments and placed them upon himself, and took up 
the gun. Then a sudden thought staggered him: 
They would think that he had killed his guard and 
escaped, and that would be far greater dishonor than 
all the rest! He stood still a moment, thinking, 
then turned, and with a few well-delivered kicks 
burst open the door. He entered and brought out 
the blanket and spread it carefully over the fallen 
soldier; then placing the gun at shoulder-arms, he 
took the dead man’s beat. 

“ Slowly he paced up and down, guarding his own 
prison and the fallen guard and waiting for the sun 
to rise. For an hour at least he would be an honor- 
able soldier again, and when the sun rose they would 
know that Laughing Thad was true! 

“ The firing was almost incessant, ebbing from one 
wing of the army to the other, horsemen and figures 
were flying everywhere through intermittent flashes 
of light and gloom, but Thad walked on. Presently 


230 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


streaks of light ran up the east, morning was break- 
ing, and the stir and excitement augmented its ad- 
vent. Surely a general assault must be on foot! 
Some saw the solitary sentinel pacing to and fro 
before the doomed man’s hut, but thought nothing 
strange. Suddenly Thad’s colonel, his hand in a 
sling, came hurrying by, going toward the front. 
He stopped in astonishment. 

“ ‘ In Heaven’s name, what are you doing, Thad? ’ 
he exclaimed. 

“ The condemned youth saluted. ‘ The man who 
was guarding me got shot. I broke out of prison 
and am guarding myself,’ he said. 

“ The colonel grasped Thad’s hand and exclaimed 
aloud his amazement and approval. 

“ i Isn’t there a fight going on this morning, 
Colonel? Aren’t we going to charge?’ asked Thad 
imploringly. 

“ ‘ Yes,’ said the officer, ‘ the enemy has been 
trying to break out. They have assaulted twice and 
driven our lines back. We are going to charge 
right away.’ 

“ ‘ Oh, let me go in with you, Colonel ! Let me go 
in with you! ’ cried Thad, trembling with eagerness. 
‘ You told me before I ran away that you needed 


THE YOUNG DESERTER 


231 


me! Surely you need me now! I’m not afraid to 
die, but, oh, let me die like a man! Let me go into 
the charge and die! If I’m not killed I’ll come 
back and be shot! ’ lie dropped on his knees before 
the officer. 6 1 swear it to you, Colonel, I’ll come 
back here and be shot ! ’ he cried, clasping the officer 
about the thighs and looking up with a face that was 
white with suffering and eagerness. ‘ Let me go in, 
Colonel; let me lead the charge like I did at Donel- 
son! Then, if I don’t fall, you can have me shot 
if you want to! ’ 

“ Tears of pity sprang into the officer’s eyes as 
he looked down at the boyish face. ‘ Thad,’ he said, 
‘you are a greater soldier than any of us. We are 
going to charge right away. Your regiment is 
straight ahead here. I’m not giving you permission 
to go anywhere, for you are under arrest, but I am 
going to the front and I’ll not look back to see what 
you do! ’ 

“ Thad leaped up and cried aloud with joy. Ten 
minutes later the column swept forward onto the 
terrible field. They were mown down as with a 
scythe, and the line wavered, but Thad strode on. 
Many faces were white as death, but Thad’s was 
flushed with light and color, and he held his head 


232 


TWO YOUNG INVENTOES 


erect. His cap, perched on the tip of his bayonet, 
was held aloft, and as he went straight toward the 
blazing breastworks of the foe, he yelled the 
charge with all his strength. The colonel fol- 
lowed him, sword in hand, cheering the men to 
victory .' 

“ Onward they swept straight into the pitiless 
hail. Hundreds fell, but the column rolled against 
the breastworks like a blue engulfing wave. For a 
moment it paused there, met by a counterwave of 
human forms and flame; smoke, filled with blades of 
fire and struggling shapes, leaped up like froth from 
two mighty smiting billows ; in the midst of it Laugh- 
ing Thad mounted the breastworks with clubbed 
musket and a yell of triumph on his lips; then the 
blue wave plunged over the earthworks into the 
open ground with a thousand victorious cries, and 
seethed like a lapsing breaker. Among the red 
wreckage lay Thad a strange smile on his upturned 
face! 

“ Well, they didn’t carry him back to the guard- 
house, but straight to a hospital. He lay there for 
weeks, slowly creeping back to life. Then one day 
a huge envelope came to the colonel from the 
Secretary of War. There were all sorts of articles 


THE YOUNG DESERTER 


233 


of writing in the envelope; petitions, letters, sworn 
depositions, and printed speeches. One paper, more 
important than the rest, was signed by the President 
of the United States and the Secretary of War. In 
it was a sentence which read: ‘ The young private, 
Thaddeus Mandon, is hereby pardoned and released 
from the findings of the court-martial which, on 
June 22, 1863, pronounced him guilty of desertion. 
The decision of the court-martial is set aside by the 
President in view of the extreme youth of this sol- 
dier, and his gallant and meritorious conduct in the 
assault upon Fort Donelson and in the last day of 
active fighting at Vicksburg.’ ” 

Mr. Young paused. “ Guess that’s about all,” he 
said, “ except that Thad finally recovered and came 
home and five years later married Violet.” 

Instantly there was applause, hands grasped the 
speaker’s and in more than one pair of eyes there 
was moisture. “ I declare,” said the man who had 
been carried past his station, “ I believe that is 
the best story yet! This trip certainly is a pic- 
nic! ” 

Dannie held his handkerchief in his hand. He 
had wadded it into a moist lump as the story pro- 
ceeded. He longed to use it upon his eyes, for 


234 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


with the climax of the narrative they swam in sym- 
pathetic dew. But Dannie was sixteen and hated to 
appear childish; he set his teeth hard and strove 
to hide his feelings. He looked at Mute. The boy 
was gazing steadily at Mr. Young, a kind of 
mingled fear and joy in his face. 

“ I am Thad Mandon,” he suddenly broke out. 
“ I know the story! I’ve heard it before! ” 

Every one turned quickly toward the pale youth. 
“Ah, I thought so; now I see!” exclaimed Mr. 
Horton. 

“What — what was that you said?” demanded 
Mr. Young, as he turned toward Mute. 

“ My name is Thaddeus Mandon. My father’s 
name was Thaddeus Mandon, my mother’s name was 
Violet — that is, it somehow seems to me so. But 
I can’t — I can’t just remember them. As I see my- 
self reflected in the mirror here at the end of the 
car now, I remember myself and that my name is 
Thad Mandon, but I don’t remember where I used 
to be. There is something vague — houses and big 
hills and a wide, wide field of blue water, and some- 
how there seem figures of two people, a man and a 
woman — so faint, so very vague and faint! — and 
the man goes, floats away, and I can’t find him. 


THE YOUNG DESERTER 


235 


The woman, it seems like a woman — stays longer, 
but she goes, far and far, and I now can’t see any- 
thing of her.” 

The boy put his hand out as if reaching toward a 
distant, dissolving vision. He dropped his hand. 
“ Ho,” he said with a sigh, “ I thought I remem- 
bered, but it is all gone now, only I remember the 
story. It seemed once or twice as if the vague 
woman was telling the story to me somewhere, but 
I can’t tell — I don’t know! ” 

The men withdrew their eyes from the boy’s face 
and looked at each other. “ This is strange,” said 
Mr. Young to Mr. Horton, “ do you understand 
it?” 

“ Hot wholly, but I think I know who the young 
man is,” Mr. Horton replied. He turned to Dannie. 
“ My boy,” he said, “ do you understand this ? I 
think you said that your comrade’s name is 
Marvel? ” 

“ That is what we called him, because that was the 
name on his boat. We called him Mute, too, be- 
cause at first he couldn’t talk,” said Dannie. 

The men looked puzzled. “ At first he couldn’t 
talk, you say; what do you mean by that?” asked 
the attorney. 


236 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


Dannie stirred uneasily; it seemed that he must 
tell the full truth. “ Mute came to us in the 
cyclone,” he said. “ Uncle and I found him in a 
boat, all wrapped up, down in our lake. He had 
been brought there by the cyclone from somewhere. 
He’d been hurt — hit on the back of the head by 
something. He couldn’t remember anything, and 
at first he couldn’t talk. Doctor Hammond said 
that something had been jarred out of place in his 
head; he used some big words that I don’t remem- 
ber. He said Mute would get well sometime, but it 
was hard to tell just when. Mute began to talk 
when we caught the big muskallonge. He got ex- 
cited and broke right out talking. He’s been all 
right since, only he don’t remember very well yet, 
do you, Mute? ” 

Dannie looked at his comrade with a cast of 
apology in his regard. 

“ Ho,” replied the boy, " I don’t remember 
well, only things that have happened since I 
knew you. But my name is Thad Mandon, 
I remember that, and I remembered this story, 
but just where I heard it and who told it to 
me is not clear to me. Call me Thad after this, 
Dannie.” 


THE YOUNG DESERTER 237 

“ All right, but it don’t seem just natural,” said 
Dannie. 

Mr. Norton arose and with a slight movement of 
his head beckoned Mr. Young and Mr. Howland to 
follow him. 


CHAPTER XII 


THAD MANDON FINDS HIMSELF 

The three gentlemen passed through the vestibule 
rearward from the buffet car and entered a Pullman 
sleeper. Mr. Xorton had the stateroom of the car 
and invited his companions into it. When they 
were seated, he said: 

“ This is a curious case, isn’t it? ” 

“ Yes,” replied Mr. Young, “ it is odd. It seems 
to be that phase of mental derangement which, I 
think, physicians call amnesia. I never before came 
in contact with a person afflicted with it.” 

“ Xor I,” said Mr. Howland. 

“ You stated, Mr. Young, that you had known the 
man, Thaddeus Mandon, of whose boyhood you told 
the story,” remarked Mr. Xorton. 

“ Yes, he used to be a division superintendent on 
the C. T. & M., when I was a young fellow in the 
service there. He himself told me the story. He 
has now been dead seven or eight years.” 

238 


THAD MANDON FINDS HIMSELF 239 

“Do you remember who constituted Mr. Man- 
don’s family? ” asked Mr. Norton. 

“ His wife and, I think, four children — two sons, 
fifteen or twenty years of age, a younger daughter, 
and a baby boy. The baby boy was born long after 
the others. The period in which I knew them was 
some twelve years ago.” 

“ I fancy that the baby boy, grown up, is in the 
car ahead of us.” 

“ It begins to look that way. Do you know any- 
thing about the family, Mr. Norton?” 

“Well, this much; there is a Mandon in Duluth. 
He is about thirty-five years of age and is an official 
of the Lake Superior and Southern. I think he is at 
present in Europe. The young fellow in the buffet 
car strongly resembles him. I am not entirely sure, 
but I fancy that I have seen this boy at some time 
in Duluth. It has occurred to me that, when I have 
my business in St. Paul completed, I might get the 
young chap to go with me to Duluth. Possibly 
he might locate himself and get straightened 
out.” 

“ A good idea, I think,” said Mr. Young. 

“ Yes,” said Mr. Howland, “ I am going up that 
way alsq. Maybe I can be of some use. These 


240 


TWO YOUNG INVENTOES 


. boys did me a great service and I am anxious to aid 
them, if they need help in any way.” 

“ Certainly we are all interested,” said Mr. 
Young. “ We will try to arrange it.” 

There was further talk as the train rumbled on- 
ward, and at noon the three men re-entered the 
buffet car and invited Dannie and Thad — the latter 
insisted on being thus addressed — to lunch with 
them in the dining car. About two o’clock the 
dusty train, laden with its dusty passengers, rolled 
into the great union depot in St. Paul. 

Mr. Norton and Mr. Howland ushered the boys 
into a carriage and drove to the principal hotel of 
the city. Mr. Young went to his home, having 
arranged to call at the hotel the following morning 
and take his famous young friends to visit the sights 
of the region. 

Presh from sleeping in the granary and dining in ' 
a wagon shed on the Harp farm, Dannie thought 
the hotel a very large and wonderful affair; in con- 
trast with the quiet fields and meadows of Camass 
Prairie, he felt the town as something huge, noisy, 
and bewildering. Thad seemed used to the ways of 
cities, and, after a fashion, was indifferent. The 
finely decorated dining room of the hotel made Dan- 


THAD MANDON FINDS HIMSELF 241 

nie stare. Thad accepted it all as a matter of 
course. The lawyer and salesman watched Dannie 
furtively, enjoying his amazement. 

“ I wish I were again as young as he, and could 
again enjoy it all and wonder at things, as he does/’ 
said Mr. Norton, aside to the salesman. 

“ Yes, we’ve both been there; we remember. It 
seems a sort of tragedy to have grown so used to 
the world that we marvel no longer at anything,” 
murmured Mr. Howland. 

“ After all, about the only compensation that in- 
experience has is that it can wonder and marvel. 
Something is due innocent ignorance, you see, and it 
has it in this.” 

Mr. Howland smiled and nodded. “ Well, I can 
still wonder about some things. I am wondering if 
the sheriff and his men captured the thief who 
attempted to abscond with my sample case.” 

Dannie pricked up his ears. “ When shall we 
know? ” he asked. 

“Mr. Young expects a report this evening. I 
presume he can tell us in the morning,” Mr. How- 
land replied. 

When Mr. Young arrived at the hotel in the 
morning he reported that “ Mr. Blue-tooth,” as Dan- 


242 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


nie once called him, had escaped the sheriff. A very 
shabby tramp had been seen walking away along 
the road leading southward from the scene of 
the attempted robbery, but, he too, had disap- 
peared. 

“ That was probably the one,” said Dannie. “ I 
expect he turned his hat and clothes inside-out and 
went away as a tramp.” 

“No doubt,” said Mr. Howland, “but some one 
may lay hands on him yet.” 

“ I hope so,” replied Dannie, but he did not know 
that fate had decreed that he and Thad were to 
accomplish the feat. 

Later in the morning Mr. Horton and Mr. How- 
land went about their business affairs, and Mr. 
Young, after having taken the boys through the 
general offices of the Northern Central, where they 
were presented to the president and other officials, 
went with them to several points of interest. 

That evening several newspaper men called at the 
hotel and interviewed the young heroes relative to 
their adventure with “ Mr. Blue-tooth,” and the 
following morning the press of the city bore front- 
page articles descriptive of the struggle and its out- 
come, together with startling illustrations and 


THAD MANDON FINDS HIMSELF 243 

hastily made “ pen-and-ink ” portraits of the boys. 
Copies of these papers were sent to Uncle Hathan, 
and created, as may be fancied, astonishment and 
gratification in the Harp home. 

Another thing of interest had been received by 
Uncle Hathan. On the morning following the ar- 
rival of Dannie and Thad in the city Mr. Horton 
had proposed that they accompany him to Duluth, 
explaining that he wished them to visit him and see 
the town at the head of Lake Superior. However, 
Thad would not consent to go anywhere without 
Dannie, so Uncle Hathan received a long telegram 
from Mr. Young informing him of Mr. Horton’s 
wish and object. Uncle Hathan replied, giving his 
consent and approval, thus leaving the two boys with 
a visit to Duluth in prospect. 

They found in and about St. Paul and Minne- 
apolis a good many things of interest, especially so to 
Dannie, but nothing that they saw aroused in them 
so much enthusiasm as the vast flouring mills by the 
falls of St. Anthony and the shops and roundhouses 
of the railroads. To look upon machinery that 
turned fifty thousand bushels of wheat into flour in 
a single day was surely worth while, and to watch 
car -wheels and engine drivers forced onto axles by 


244 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


hydraulic pressure, and to see giant steam hammers 
working and cranes picking up locomotives that 
weighed a hundred tons and easily moving them 
about, was remarkable and inspiring. Dannie felt 
most distinctly that the world was large and wonder- 
ful with man’s greatness; he longed more keenly 
than ever to achieve things in it. 

On the fifth day after their arrival, accompanied 
by Mr. Norton and Mr. Howland, the lads were off 
for Duluth. For hours the train rolled through a 
green world, touched faintly here and there with 
the first russet tinge of autumn, then through a long 
waste of blackened pine stubs, the scene of a great 
forest fire, then through regions of green pines and 
hills set with groves of oaks, and finally, in the 
afternoon, they drew into the town of Superior, and 
in another half hour were in Duluth. 

At Superior Thad began to look about him with a 
glow of interest; he recognized and remembered the 
region. When he beheld the mighty blue mirror of 
the greatest of all earthly lakes shimmering in the 
distance, he burst out joyously: - 

“ There it is! there it is! Lake Superior! I’ve 
seen that before ! 99 

When they got down from the train in Duluth 


THAD MANDON FINDS HIMSELF 245 

they went at once to the chief hotel. Mr. Norton 
and Mr. Howland were no longer watching Dannie; 
their eyes followed Thad’s every movement, noting 
the changing play of feeling and recognition mir- 
rored in his eyes and face. In the hotel they en- 
tered an elevator and were taken to a spacious ob- 
servatory at the top of the big building. 

About them, spread out like an open fan, lay the 
wide panorama of the city, the harbor, the azure 
plain of the lake, ships coming and going, tall stacks 
belching smoke, trains creeping along distant shores, 
and all inclosed by a vast half-circle of green hills. 
The scene was singularly large and beautiful. Dan- 
nie went into raptures while Thad leaped about and 
shouted delightedly: 

“ I know the place ! I’ve seen it before ! This 
is Duluth! The house is up there! Don’t you see 
it, up there along the shore ! ” He pointed excitedly 
where hundreds of residences dotted the north- 
eastern curve of the inclosing amphitheater of 
hills. 

“ We are on the right track,” said Mr. Norton, in 
an aside to Mr. Howland. “ Come ! ” 

They descended and, calling a carriage, drove out 
a long street northward. Thad was happy, looking 


246 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


about him and recognizing everything. Finally the 
carriage drew up before a spacious residence and 
they alighted. Thad started up the walk on a run, 
beckoning the others to follow. He tried the door, 
but it was locked, he rang the bell and waited. 
Presently a servant unlocked the door and swung it 
open. 

“ Why, Mr. Thad! ” the woman exclaimed, “ Mr. 
Thad, is it really you? ” 

The youth shook the woman’s hand laughingly. 
“ I guess it is, though I am not very sure,” he 
said. 

The woman stared at him curiously, then looked 
at the others. “ Will you come in?” she asked 
civilly. 

“.Yes, come in, gentlemen, come in! I know this 
house all right,” said Thad. 

He brushed by the servant eagerly and the others 
followed him. They entered a reception hall, in 
which there was a fireplace and a fine staircase, from 
the hall they passed through a wide, curtain-draped 
door into a long, finely furnished parlor, and from 
that through another door, two-thirds the width of 
the room, into a second and still larger room. All 
the way Thad was smiling happily and looking about 


THAD MANDON FINDS HIMSELF 247 

him. Dannie thought it the most magnificent place 
he had ever been in. In the second parlor they 
paused, and Thad suddenly sprang toward a pic- 
ture on the wall, a life-sized painting of a beautiful 
woman. 

“ Mother!” he exclaimed, “ mother !” and stood 
before it with clasped hands, trembling all over. 
He turned half way around, his face aglow with a 
kind of glory. Facing him at the end of the room 
was another and larger picture, a painting of a 
battle-scene. In the picture were trees wreathed 
with rolling smoke, and in the smoke below were 
two battle-lines of soldiers clashing together about a 
breastwork, and upon the breastwork in the midst of 
the terrible combat was the figure of a boyish soldier 
with clubbed musket lifted on high, and with a yell 
of triumph on his lips, pitching forward into the 
blazing ranks of the foe. 

Thad gazed at it a moment, then with a strange 
cry he convulsively pressed a hand hard upon each 
of his temples and staggered. As he pressed his 
head between his hands he looked at Dannie and the 
men with wide, startled eyes. 

“ My God ! ” he whispered, “ I remember — I re- 
member — everything! ” He reeled back as if struck 


248 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


by a blinding light. Dannie sprang forward with 
outstretched hands, and suddenly Thad flung his 
arms about Dannie’s neck and buried his face on his 
shoulder, laughing and crying like an enraptured 
child. 


CHAPTER XIII 


ABROAD ON THE LAKE 

That was really the beginning of strange things, 
for after that came the building of the hying boat 
and Dannie’s and Thad’s well-nigh unbelievable ex- 
ploit on the Superior and Southern. 

In the present moment, as Thad disengaged him- 
self from his comrade, Mr. Horton and Mr. How- 
land shook his hand warmly in congratulation of 
his recovery. While Thad Mandon’s mental state 
had not in any sense approached insanity his con- 
dition had been a sad thing to see. Had it continued 
indefinitely his usefulness in life would have been 
sadly impaired; he would, at least, have been com- 
pelled to relearn, mainly, all that his seventeen years 
of experience had taught him. The full return to him 
of the blessed boon of memory was therefore' a large 
and delightful event. The two boys looked at. each 
other with a full understanding of what it meant to 
them, each clasped the other’s hand hard, laughing 
joyously. 

“ Come into the library, Dannie ; and you, Mr. 

249 


250 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


Norton and Mr. Howland, come too; I have some 
things to explain,” said Thad. They entered the 
library and were seated, and Thad, with shining eyes 
and a face that looked less pale and sad than form- 
erly, told them about himself. 

“ I am really Thad Mandon,” he said. “ This is 
my brother Jasper’s home. He has been paymaster 
for the Superior and Southern for a long time ; early 
in the present year he was promoted to the position 
of treasurer for the company. Before entering his 
new position, he decided to take a six months’ vaca- 
tion, and is now in Europe. His wife and my 
mother went with him. My brother has no chil- 
dren, so no one but a servant has been in charge 
here, that is, after I left some four or five weeks 
ago. 

“ My mother and I live, when at home, in Chicago. 
My father has been dead some years. He was the 
young soldier of the story. I have a brother, also, in 
Chicago. He is a married man and is at the head 
of a department in a commercial house. My sister 
lives in New York. My brothers and sisters are a 
good deal older than I am. My sister is the wife of 
Stanly Barman, the junior member of a big jewelry 
firm in New York, and ” 


ABROAD ON THE LAKE 


251 


“ Well, by jolly! ” exclaimed Mr. Howland, “ Mr. 
Barman is one of the firm that I work for! Why, 
I know yonr sister, she is my wife’s best friend! ” 
He got up and shook Thad’s hand again. “ Well,” 
he said, “ this is quite romantic! ” 

They all laughed and were pleased. “ It seems to 
me I ought to figure myself into some sort of rela- 
tionship with these young heroes,” said Mr. Horton 
laughingly, “ but I suppose I’ll have to be content 
with being simply an admirer and friend.” 

“We are your friends, anyway,” said Dannie; 
“ we like you.” 

Mr. Horton bowed and smiled. “ I am both 
honored and flattered,” he said; “ I will try and 
prove myself worthy. Proceed with your story, 
Mr. Mandon.” 

“ Well, I have been attending school in Chicago,” 
Thad continued. “ Last year I completed the high 
school course and in the autumn entered the King- 
man Institute. They teach all sorts of mechanics 
there, you know. I like to tinker at things ; mechan- 
ical inventions interest me. I’ve had several 
notions along that line. One of these ideas, the most 
fantastic of the lot, took possession of me. The 
notion was to construct a boat which would both 


252 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


sail and fly; that is, a boat which, when opposed by 
a head wind, could be made to rise and sail upon the 
wind instead of tacking to the right or left in order 
to make headway. Just how I proposed to do this 
I will explain to Dannie, but, naturally, not to any 
one else. Dannie is a born inventor. You should have 
seen the ingenious things he lately made, back there 
on his uncle’s farm! ” Tliad broke out laughing. 
“ I am thinking of the squawking scarecrow and the 
sailing-buggy; how the scarecrow would wake us up 
at night by suddenly beginning to squall, and of that 
header we took over the hedge fence! 

“ I was speaking of the flying boat,” he continued, 
after Dannie and he had enjoyed a laugh. “ Well, 
for a good while I’ve had a workshop in the barn 
back of our house, in Chicago. I made experiments 
and entertained myself there. My mother favored 
it; she said it kept me out of mischief. I got up 
most of the machinery of the boat there at odd times, 
or rather, made some of the parts myself and worked 
out models for other parts and had the real mechan- 
ism made at real machine shops, not far away. 

“ Then, after the folks had started for Europe, I 
came out here for my summer’s vacation. I shipped 
the working parts of the contraption here to 


ABROAD ON THE LAKE 


253 


Duluth. I might have tried the thing on the lake 
at Chicago, hut I hated to get into the papers and 
be laughed at. I felt the same way here, so, with- 
out letting any one know where I was going, I took 
the apparatus to a small lake in the western part of 
the State to get a secret place in which to make the 
experiment. I wanted to go out there anyhow, to 
fish and camp. I found the lake among some hills 
about twenty miles southwest of where Dannie’s 
folks live. The nearest that any one lived to my 
lake w T as about a mile distant, a farmhouse. I found 
a sailboat at the lake, about the size I wanted, and 
I bought it. It was in a crude little boat-house 
there. I had my traps hauled out to the lake from 
the second station west of Sidwell. I went to work 
fitting the thing together in the boat-house. I kept 
everything secret. You see, if the thing worked I 
wanted to have it patented. 

“Well, one day I had about everything ready, 
and I pushed the boat out into the water. The 
clouds promised a stiff wind, which was just what I 
wanted. I was working at something that didn’t 
act right; I suppose I must have been awfully taken 
up with what I was doing, for I didn’t notice any- 
thing about me particularly. Suddenly there was a 


254 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


frightful crash of thunder. I straightened up 
quickly, for I was working in the bottom of the 
boat. The next instant something seemed to strike 
me on the back of the head, and for me ‘ the lights 
went out.’ I woke up in another lake, the one on 
Mr. Harp’s farm. It seems that a cyclone licked 
the boat and myself up, just about as a cat licks up 
a drop of cream, and dropped us in Dannie’s 
lake.” 

“ Yes,” said Dannie, “ there was a cyclone from 
the southwest and one from the northwest. They 
met just at our lake. I suppose you were dropped 
there.” 

“ It was a very strange occurrence, one of the 
strangest I ever heard of,” said Mr. Howland. 

“ Yes,” said Mr. Horton, “ but it is odd that no 
one went to look for him.” 

“ There was no one to look for me. I had no 
relatives nearer than Chicago, and my brother, 
there, thought I was here in Duluth, safe and sound, 
no doubt. I told the servant here only that I was 
going to the western part of the State fishing, that 
was all. Scarcely any one knew that I was at the 
lake ; no one, I suppose, missed me,” said Thad. 

“ And you didn’t remember? ” 


ABROAD ON THE LAKE 


255 


“Not a thing.” 

“ You have lived through a remarkable story, my 
boy,” said Mr. Howland. “ What are you going to 
do next? ” 

The two boys looked at each other and smiled. 
“ Live through another story, I suppose,” said Thad. 
“ Dannie and I will proceed to build another and 
better flying boat. The other one wasn’t just right, 
anyhow, I am afraid. Besides, it’s now a wreck. 
What do you think, Dannie ? ” 

Dannie’s face glowed. “ Certainly,” he replied, 
“ I think it would be great fun. We will go back to 
Uncle Nathan’s to do it, I suppose?” 

“ Not by any means,” replied Thad decisively. 
“ Your uncle’s home is a fine place; I shall always 
be grateful to him and glad to visit there, but we 
shall require greater facilities than can be had on 
your uncle’s farm in order to construct so difficult 
an invention as a flying boat. We shall have to 
make the working parts, or have them made, in 
Chicago. Everything must be as perfectly finished 
as a fine bicycle. My models and patterns are in 
my shop in Chicago. I would like to have the same 
foundry and brass-workers that did the work before 
again make certain parts. W T e shall improve the 


256 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


work by doing so. Now, I have an idea: Your 
Uncle Nathan knows that you have ability; he has 
recently seen evidence of it; secretly he has the 
notion that you ought to have the benefit of a school 
such as I have been attending. I move that we get 
his consent for you to go with me to Chicago and 
attend the Kingman Institute. During the winter 
we will work out the boat’s apparatus, and, perhaps, 
several other things, and next summer we will come 
up here on Lake Superior and have some fun. The 
new term at the Kingman Institute begins in about 
two weeks, so I haven’t much longer to remain ab- 
sent. You can go down there and live with mother 
and myself just as well as not. What do you 
say? ” 

Dannie was surprised at Thad’s mental activity 
and apparent capacity, now that his faculties were 
entirely clear. Without question the boy had capac- 
ity and grasp and energy and unusual enthusiasm, 
though Dannie felt, rather than thought, that per- 
haps his comrade might not be exactly as practical 
as one might wish. The idea of a flying boat always 
rather stunned Dannie, though it surely seemed an 
enticing dream. 

“ Of course I would like to do as you say,” Dannie 


ABROAD ON THE LAKE 


257 


replied. “ I’ve always wanted to go to such a 
school. But I don’t know if Uncle Nathan would 
consent.” 

Both Mr. Norton and Mr. Howland took up the 
idea with enthusiasm. “ We don’t know your uncle, 
of course, and have no knowledge of his plans re- 
garding you,” said Mr. Norton, “ hut I, for one, 
will take pleasure in writing to him, and so will Mr. 
Howland, I am sure. We will give you a large 
‘ send off ’ and urge him to let you go. I will have 
Mr. Young write to him also about it. And you, 
Mr. Thad, must write to him, explaining everything 
and urging him to let your chum go home with you 
and attend the school.” 

Dannie flushed with pleasure. How kind every 
one was! 

“ I will write to him fully,” said Thad. “ I think 
he will let Dannie go. Meantime my chum will, of 
course, remain here with me.” 

“ Not all the time,” put in Mr. Norton; " both of 
you must come and visit me. My home is over at 
the other end of the town, my offices are in the 
Northern Building.” 

They all arose. The attorney shook hands with 
the boys and they thanked him for his invitation 


258 TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 

and kindness. Mr. Howland extended a hand to 
each of the boys and looked at them with admiring 
eyes. “ You are a fine pair of ‘ kids/ ” he said, 
“ and I look for yon to become great men. One of 
these days you’ll be coming down to Hew York; 
then, if I’m in town, I’ll do my best to make yonr 
visit one to be remembered. I am coming to see 
you in Chicago presently, too. I shall try to do 
some things to convince you that men do not always 
forget a kind and brave deed. Good-bye.” 

Thad thanked him and gave him the street and 
number of his mother’s house in Chicago and they 
parted. 

With the flight of a few days five long letters ar- 
rived at the Harp home. Uncle Hathan and Aunt 
Sarah were quite overcome with the glory shed upon 
their nephew by the writers, and here in one of the 
letters was a full explanation of who and what Mute 
Marvel was! To these farm folk it was all very 
much like a fairy story. Three of the letters — 
those signed by Mr. Young and Mr. Horton and Mr. 
Howland — offered money to aid Dannie in his wish 
to attend the Kingman Institute. The home folk 
were touched by this, but Uncle Hathan was one 
of the wealthiest men on Camass Prairie, and, of 


ABROAD ON THE LAKE 


259 


course, would not entertain such a proposal. He 
had always intended sending Dannie away to school, 
he said, and now that the boy had seemingly found 
the right road he was anxious to have him go ahead. 

Thus it transpired that some two weeks later Dan- 
nie and Thad found themselves in Chicago, in- 
stalled in Thad’s home, which lay in a pleasant 
street not far from Garfield Park. To give Dannie’s 
impressions of the great, roaring metropolis, and his 
experiences during the school year, would fill more 
than a chapter. He found his new life full of in- 
tense interest. Thad and he, busy with lessons and 
experiments at the Institute, devoted such spare 
time as was theirs to the flying boat idea and other 
inventive notions. Late in June of the following 
year they were back in Duluth, and, down in a 
private boat-house near the Mandon residence, 
Thad’s materialized dream lay completed. 

One morning, just when the dark curtain of night 
was beginning to lift and grow gray along its eastern 
edge, they opened the big doors and pushed the New 
Marvel down the ways into the water. Along the 
shore no life was stirring. IJp in the Mandon resi- 
dence Thad’s mother, who had come with them to 
Duluth, and whom Dannie regarded with an affec- 


260 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


tion such as he might have given his own mother, 
was sleeping. Mr. Mandon too, and his wife were 
still slumbering. These persons knew something of 
the boys’ fantastic project, but Thad had intimated 
that he wished his idea kept quiet, besides, they were 
long since used to Thad’s “ visions,” as they called 
his inventive schemes. Jasper Mandon, a thorough 
and practical business man, had drawn from the boys 
a rather evasive and vague description of the New 
Marvel and had said: 

“Well, if you find that you have a better motor 
tha'n is commonly used, or a superior propeller, you 
will have accomplished enough. Don’t expect too 
much.” 

Thad remarked that he usually found his elder 
brother rather discouraging, but Dannie thought 
Mr. Mandon very sensible and reasonable. 

So now in the early morning of the last day of 
J une, they were going abroad on the mighty lake to 
put their idea to the test. As the boat stood out 
upon the water, which was beginning to film with 
faint pink, she looked very trim and fine. The new 
boat was much like that one which lay wrecked on 
the grassy marge of Lake Marvel, though she was 
slightly longer and deeper and more nicely trimmed 


ABROAD ON THE LAKE 261 

and painted. Her mechanical parts, too, were better 
finished and fitted. Thad, especially, though anxi- 
ous regarding her prospective performance, was 
proud of her. 

To convey to any man an exact knowledge of some- 
thing which he has never beheld is quite impossible. 
To the reader, then, a full and perfect impression 
of the boat’s working apparatus cannot be given. 
All that is possible in the present instance is a more 
or less indefinite outline of a curious but very actual 
thing. 

The body of the boat was some twenty-one feet in 
length over all, built of a light, hard wood and lined 
throughout with varnished rawhide, the latter 
cemented to the wood and rendering the thin hull 
water-tight and at the same time stanch. The ribs 
of the hull were small and of steam-curved hickory 
and braced everywhere with aluminum plates. 
Thus an extremely light but very strong bottom was 
gained. There was no engine in the usual sense; 
simply the motor, bolted to a foundation frame that 
precisely fitted into the bottom of the boat, and serv- 
ing to give the hull rigidity. 

The motor was about the size of a “ drummer’s ” 
trunk of medium capacity, and was constructed of 


262 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


steel and aluminum. It was of greater length, how- 
ever, than a trunk, being some six feet long. In- 
ternally the motor was a round, smooth chamber, 
containing a sort of turbine wheel, a long, auger-like 
contrivance of curving grooves, built around and 
revolving a steel shaft that extended rearward to the 
propeller. In the walls of the motor were four tiny, 
round chambers, or cups, with openings from them 
into the main cylindrical chamber of the motor. 
Properly, these four steel cups in the walls of the 
motor might have been called explosion-chambers, 
for into them from small aluminum tanks liquid 
chemicals were admitted by automatic action. 
Dropping together in these tiny steel chambers the 
antagonistic acids instantly became gas, which, as 
instantly, was exploded by an electric spark, hurling 
a gush of force through the curved flanges of the 
power-core and turning the propeller with amazing 
speed and force. 

This, however, was not the sole use of the gas, 
the energy of its rapid explosion being further em- 
ployed. Leading downward and backward from the 
motor were two pipes that passed through the boat's 
hull to the right and left of the stern, opening below 
the water-line. Through Uiese pipes the elastic 


ABROAD ON THE LAKE 


263 


vapor, released from the power-core, shot backward 
and smote the water, or the air, as the case might 
be, a strong, pushing blow, materially aiding in forc- 
ing the boat forward. 

As for the propellers — there were three of them 
— their construction and dynamics were less easily 
explained. The one working at the stern, being 
designed both for air and water, had somewhat 
longer blades than is common with propellers, while 
a second propeller was placed on the port side, some 
four feet from the stern, and a third on the star- 
board side, the same distance from the stern. These 
latter propellers revolved on a horizontal plane in- 
stead of perpendicularly, their blades being so 
curved as to drive the boat both upward and for- 
ward. If the reader stand in front of an electric 
fan he may, feeling the small blades drive the air 
against his face, have realization of the force which 
Thad and Dannie purposed bringing into use. 

Then there were the sails, or, more correctly, the 
aeroplanes. There were four of these, two forward 
and two toward the stern. These aeroplanes were 
heavy sail-cloth stretched upon light steel frames, 
mounted on steel standards and capable of being set 
to any angle. Did a stern wind blow they could 


264 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


be used as sails, did a head wind prevail they could 
he set to act as aeroplanes or kites upon which to 
sail. When set perfectly level they formed a wide 
and pleasant canopy for the boat. 

“ Now,” said Thad, “ all depends upon whether 
or not the stern propeller and the blows of the gas 
issuing from the vent-pipes against the water will 
give us enough speed. If we can gain sufficient 
velocity and have the right sort of opposing wind to 
rise upon, and the lifting propellers do what I think 
they will, we ought to get up into the air. What do 
you think, old boy? ” 

Dannie smiled. “ I’ll wait and see,” he said. 
“ Maybe we have built the swiftest boat ever put 
upon water. If we have, I’ll be satisfied.” 

Thad frowned and laughed. “ Nothing will sat- 
isfy me except to fly,” he said. 

Ci If you do fly maybe once will satisfy you,” re- 
marked Dannie. 

u Well, we are off! Now for fun! ” said Thad. 

Sitting by the motor, he pushed a lever slightly, 
permitting the liquid chemicals to escape into the 
explosion-chambers, the next moment he moved an- 
other small lever, throwing the storage batteries 
into circuit. Instantly the motor began to pulse 


ABROAD ON THE LAKE 265 

like a beating heart, the stern propeller began to 
cut the water sharply, and the New Marvel moved 
out upon the filming flood. The aeroplanes were set 
level, the lifting fans were not yet set into gear; 
Dannie sat with his hand upon the rudder-helm, his 
eyes sparkling with anxious anticipations. The 
boat took to the water much as a swallow takes to 
the air; indeed, the little craft, as a boat, had some- 
thing of the graceful, arrowy lightness that the swal- 
low has among the birds. Through the larger part of 
the year it had been building; its parts had come to 
completion among air-pumps, chemicals, lathes, 
forges, magnets, and what not; now it was on the 
water facing the elements. 

Thad pushed the releasing-lever over another 
notch; the pulsations of the motor quickened, the 
blows planted against the water by the expanded 
gas, escaping through the vent-pipes, jarred the boat 
perceptibly. 

“ There is a good deal of vibration,” remarked 
Dannie. 

“ There will be less as the speed increases,” said 
Thad. “ As the explosions increase in rapidity they 
will reach a point where the escaping gas will form 
practically a continuous stream, the push will then 


266 TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 

become very nearly constant, and hence, without 
jar. Of course, there will always be some vibra- 
tion from the explosions in the chambers, but that, 
too, will decrease as the explosions increase in rapid- 
ity. When the explosions follow each other so 
rapidly that they practically merge then there 
should be very little vibration, somewhat on the 
principle of the alternating current. You remem- 
ber that the professor told us that electric impulses, 
passing along a wire and returning, if brought to 
sufficient frequency of vibration, would seem to 
stand still. That is, the vibrations becoming so fre- 
quent that human sensation could not register them, 
there would be no sensation at all. That is what I 
am counting on here. The four explosion-chambers 
being shocked one after the other, will, when suffi- 
cient rapidity is obtained, merge and neutralize the 
jar, at least the vibration should become soft and 
fine.” 

“ One of these days you will become a demonstra- 
tor and lecturer, Thad. Then it will be Professor 
Thaddeus Mandon. Well, let her out! There is 
no hedge fence in front of us. I know your theory 
by heart; let’s see if it works.” 

Thad oiled all the bearings, he felt of the motor- 


ABROAD ON THE LAKE 


267 


walls over the explosion-chambers. “ Feels a little 
warm here,” he said. “ I expect we will have to 
build salt and ammonia tanks around these chambers 
finally. Let her out, you say? All right. I hope 
she won’t blow up. If everything is strong enough 
to stand the strain we are safe.” 

“ Blow the whistle,” laughed Dannie. 

u We haven’t any. You can whistle. Perhaps 
you’d better, it may be your last chance,” remarked 
Thad, putting the release-lever over another notch. 

Dannie began to whistle, though his hands trem- 
bled slightly and there was a creeping sensation in 
his scalp as the speed increased. Thad put the lever 
over another notch and still another and another. 
The boys grew sober. The motor settled down to 
a steady hum, the water, smitten by the propeller 
and the gas from the vents, leaped rearward in a 
white sheet, the boat swept along the surface like a 
flying thing. 

Both the boys began to yell like mad. u She 
stands it! There’s hardly any vibration! Hur- 
rah! ” cried Thad. 

“ We’ve got them all beaten! This beats the 
winged buggy to death! Let her go! ” shouted 
Dannie, beside himself with joy. 


268 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


The boat went outward, skimming across the long, 
low swells like a bird. All the east was a rack of 
clouds on fire with flames of gold, the vast floor of 
the lake was a gleaming plain of purplish red, the 
morning air was fresh as wine; the speed, the scene, 
the new boat — all were intoxicating. If Dannie had 
dared leave the rudder he would have hugged Thad. 

“ We are not using her full battery power, not 
quite,” said Thad. His hair was blown back from 
his broad brow, his eyes shone brilliant. “ I guess 
I’ll set the aeroplanes at a kite-angle and throw the 
lifts into gear. There’s hardly any wind, but we’ll 
see how she’ll act, anyhow.” 

He set the planes at a slight angle, fastening them 
rigidly in position by ropes that came down to rings 
set here and there in the boat’s rail. The planes 
were now in such position that the air against 
which they were rushing spent its force upon them 
from beneath, thus lifting strongly upward, espe- 
cially the forward half of the boat. Thad then 
by a lever threw the lifting-fans into connection with 
the main shaft. As the fans began to swiftly re- 
volve, clutching the invisible ether with their blades 
and pushing skyward, the boat lifted until seemingly 
only its hissing keel touched the water. 


ABROAD ON THE LAKE 


269 


“ When we get a stiff head wind, put on the full 
battery and set the planes at just a slight angle, so 
there will be hardly any head resistance, by cracky! 
I believe she’ll take to the air and sail like a hawk! ” 
exclaimed Thad. 

Dannie laughed a bit nervously. “ If she takes 
to the air, what next? ” he asked. 

“ I don’t know exactly.” 

“ I do.” 

“ What?” 

“ She’ll take a header into this nice, deep, beau- 
tiful lake,” laughed Dannie. 

“Well, let her; I want her to fly! ” 

“ So do I; just once. We can swim.” He sat silent 
a moment, looking ahead as they flew along the glint- 
ing surface. The air purred under the planes, the 
motor gave off a sound like the soft roll of a drum, 
the water rose and fled back from the stern in a long 
foaming welt, the swells slapped under the half- 
lifted forward bottom in gushing hisses. “ Yes, I 
think once would do,” he said. “ If we got out of 
that alive and with the boat unwrecked we’d be do- 
ing well. The main thing, Thad, is that we’ve got an 
arrangement here that gives great speed and lifts 
the boat so she rides high in the water. If we had 


270 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


the boat loaded then this lifting arrangement would 
be just the thing; it would hold the boat high so that 
the water could give but little resistance.” 

“ There you go again, old Mr. Practical! I tell 
you, what I want to do is to fly! ” 

“ So do I, but I believe I could manage to exist 
if I didn’t.” They both laughed. Thad touched 
the motor here and there with the ends of his fingers. 
“ She’s getting pretty warm,” he said. “ I guess I’ll 
slow her down a bit.” 

“ Yes, the chambers will have to be surrounded 
with coolers in some way before the thing will be a 
real success,” said Dannie. “We can keep down 
the heat of journals and bearings with oil, but it 
would take a spirit or ghost with some sort of new 
lubrication to oil an explosion.” 

“ Oh, I don’t know; I am not so sure about that,” 
Thad replied. “ If the inside surface of the ex- 
plosion-chambers could be constantly sprayed with 
oil the friction of the expanding gas would be 
reduced and both the heat and jar would be 
less.” 

“ That sounds good,” Dannie said, “ but the sud- 
denly ignited gas would burn and pound the oil ofi 
in the fraction of a second.” 


ABROAD ON THE LAKE 


271 


“ Yes, but in that fraction of a second the oil 
would ease the impact and there would be less jar 
and heat,” said Thad, with a smile. 

“ Perhaps you are right, Professor Fanciful. 
You are six months older in fact and about five years 
older in theory than I am. Still, I got up a pretty 
fair sort of scarecrow, you know.” Again they both 
laughed. 

Thad put the release lever back a few notches and 
the New Marvel fell to a quieter pace. In the 
locker in the prow were several gallon jars of pow- 
dered chemicals, some ex + ra jars of storage-battery, 
a few small tools and a three days’ supply of food. 
Resting in cleats under the forward bows were two 
light shotguns and a couple of folded fishing-rods. 
Thad put the release-lever back to zero and the ma- 
chinery came slowly to a stand-still; the boat floated 
as it pleased upon the broad water. 

“ Let’s eat,” he said, “ I’m getting hungry.” 

“ Me, too,” said Dannie. 

They got out some bread, cold fried chicken, and 
fruit, and seating themselves, breakfasted with 
great relish. They were some fifteen miles out 
from Duluth, and looking back, saw the city and 
harbor, lying in a gigantic amphitheater of hills, 


272 TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 

gleaming rosy and white in the slanting morning 
light. Eastward from them the waters of the lake 
stretched onward through nearly four hundred 
miles, at some points close upon two hundred miles 
in width, a matchless expanse of blue, dotted now 
and again with beautiful islands and bathing shores 
fair beyond, perhaps, anything that the sun else- 
where shone upon. 

Here and there were lumber schooners, seeming 
to scarcely move upon the still expanse, and here and 
there mighty, slow-moving, grain-laden steamers, 
making for far-off Buffalo. How and again a big 
passenger steamer passed, with a tumbling wall of 
white foam on either side of the prow, a vast snake 
of froth and oily green wallowing backward from 
the stern, and stacks belching crumbling plumes of 
smoke. 

“ Where do you think we will go, and how far? ” 
Dannie asked. 

“ Don’t know,” replied Thad, his mouth full of 
fried chicken; “ we will just cruise onward until we 
find the right sort of head wind.” 

Dannie chuckled. “ Two daring souls abroad on 
the trackless main, seeking a lost wind! ” he 
chanted. 


ABROAD ON THE LAKE 


273 


“ ‘ The Breeze Hunters; or, A Voyage in Quest 
of the Wind/ will be the title of the story,” laughed 
Thad. “ We are making history, you know.” 

“ Maybe we are making fools of ourselves 
instead,” said Dannie. “Tide and time will 
tell.” 

“And the wind — don’t leave out the wind!” 
laughed Thad. 

When they had finished eating, Thad took the 
rudder and Dannie sat down to the motor. He set 
the releasing-lever over two or three notches and 
the New Marvel went eastward at a fairly rapid clip. 
As the day advanced the sky and water widened; 
vast clouds, pure white and moving lazily, drifted 
toward the zenith; afar to the southeast, over the 
dim, pine-covered hills, floated blue clouds of smoke. 

“ Looks like there might be a forest-fire off that 
way somewhere,” remarked Dannie. 

“ Yes, looks like it. The Superior and Southern 
runs down through that region,” said Thad. 

“ Fire must not be a very pleasant thing to rail- 
road in,” added Dannie. 

“ Ho.” 

They got no strong wind that day. The boat 
ran onward across the blue fields while the boys 


274 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


talked and dreamed, for the downy lift and fall of 
the little craft was very restful. The sky seemed 
a tent of violet, the lake a plain of turquoise, the air 
a balm for every type of weariness. Now and then 
they saw a steamer trailing its banner of smoke 
along the horizon, and here and there an island, a 
green flake floating on a sea of sapphire. 

About noon they broke their fast again, and all 
the afternoon they drifted. Sometimes they 
napped, lying protected from the sun by the wide 
canopy of the planes, for both were tired from weeks 
of work and unspoken anxiety; besides, neither of 
them had scarcely slept at all the night before, see- 
ing what lay before them. As the day waned they 
turned the boat toward the south, and then west- 
ward, for they descried a small island lying in that 
direction. As they approached the tiny continent 
it seemed to burn and glow like an ember, lying, 
as it did, directly at the heart of the sunset. When 
the New Marvel set her nose into the sandy beach 
twilight was falling, the air was like smoky gold, the 
western sky like madder, the lake a flinty green. 

The island was covered with stunted pines, the 
beach piled at several points with driftwood. On 
the hard sand at the edge of a little slope of dry, 


ABKOAD ON THE LAKE 


275 


yellowish moss, the “ wind seekers ” built a roaring 
fire, and, having boiled some coffee and eaten sup- 
per, each rolled himself in a light blanket, brought 
from the locker, and stretching himself upon the 
moss, passed presently into the realm of dreams. 


CHAPTEE XIV 


THE “ NEW MARVEL’S ” FATE 

Dannie had slept, seemingly, hut a moment when, 
with a start, he awoke. There was a great conflagra- 
tion in the east, a flaming splendor, not unlike the 
burning of a vast city. The youth bored his 
knuckles into his eyes and looked; it was morning, 
breaking fiery and crimson in the east. Thad was 
preparing breakfast at a bed of glowing coals near 

by- 

“ Hello! ” he cried, u farmer hoys seem to snooze 
very sound! I thought perhaps the smell of the 
coflee and this frying fish would waken you.” 

Dannie leaped up. “ Fish ! ” he shouted, “ who 
said fish? Where did you get fish?” 

“ Caught a couple of lake trout in the eddy there 
by that point of rocks,” smiled Thad. 

“ And me fast asleep ! Say, professor, you want 
to keep in mind that I am the king-fisherman of the 
Northwest; at least, I am one of ’em,” said Dannie, 
striking a heroic pose and smiting his chest. 

276 


THE “ NEW MARVEL^ ” FATE 277 

“ And who is the other one? ” roared Thad, bend- 
ing far back and swelling out his bosom. 

“The chief wind-chaser is slated for the honor. 
Hail to the chief! ” They fell to laughing. 

“ Bay, Dannie/’ said Thad, more quietly, yet with 
a fine light in his eyes, “ did you notice that the wind 
is blowing? ” 

“Hurrah!” yelled Dannie, as he noticed that a 
strong, racing breeze was singing about his ears. 
He looked upward and abroad. The sky was adrift 
with clouds, some edged with gold, some edged with 
rose, all dyed with varying shades of pink. The 
purplish plain of water was full of life, moving 
northwestward in long, heaving, white-laced swells. 
The rugged line of the southern shore, some thirty 
miles away, looked blear and blue, the long, lifted 
mass of hills being nearly invisible in smoke. The 
tossing vapor mainly followed the wind toward the 
northwest, but, though it passed miles to the south 
of Dannie and Thad, there was a distinct odor of 
burning pine in the air. 

“ Looks like the world was burning up over that 
way,” remarked Dannie. 

“ Yes, the Superior and Southern must be having 
a picnic,” said Thad. “ Think we better run over 


278 TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 

in that direction this afternoon or to-morrow and 
see what is doing.” 

“ Not a bad idea,” replied Dannie. He looked at 
the New Marvel , lying half way out of the water 
near by. “ Ah, my lady-bird, now you’ll have a 
chance to try your wings! ” he exclaimed. “ Now 
we’ll see what sort of stuff you are made of ! ” 

“ Here, breakfast is ready! Wash your face and 
fall to, I am anxious to get out on the water! ” cried 
Thad. “ The breeze is hardly stiff enough, I think, 
but we’ll hit her a whack, anyway.” 

“ I am wid yez,” said Dannie jocularly. 

A half hour later, having carefully inspected the 
mechanism of the boat, they launched her and 
turned her prow to the open water. Drawing well 
out upon the liquid field, Thad set the aeroplanes to 
a somewhat lower angle than that of a flying kite. 
Dannie was at the helm. 

“ Now,” said Thad, “ let’s turn her and run with 
the wind for a quarter of a mile or so. We will get 
her to going fast, then you throw her to port, bring 
her around to the wind with a swoop on a short 
circle. As she meets the head wind I’ll give her 
every pound of power that’s in her vitals, then we’ll 
see what she will do.” 


THE “ NEW MARVEL’S ” FATE 279 

“ All right, here goes,” said Dannie, putting the 
boat about. 

They ran with the wind astern through a few 
hundred yards. When they were going at a swift 
clip, Dannie suddenly put the helm over hard and 
the boat went round like a swooping hawk. As she 
came up into the wind Thad put the releasing-lever 
over to the last notch. The motor, propeller, fans, 
and drive-pipes roared and shook the frail craft, 
the planes creaked and strained. Instantly the for- 
ward part of the boat lifted, she seemed going onto 
her beam’s end. Thad leaped from the lever and 
landed in the prow, thus saving the quivering boat 
from turning a backward somersault. Through per- 
haps twenty seconds they were in the air, then the 
New Marvel smote the water with a resounding 
slap. The wind had suddenly eased up. The face 
of each lad was slightly pale. Thad put the 
lever back a couple of notches. They began to 
laugh. 

“ Well, she’s the boss jumper, anyhow!” ex- 
claimed Dannie. “ She must have cleared the 
water for about two hundred feet ! ” 

Thad drew a long breath. “ If the wind were 
strong enough, and perfectly steady, I believe she 


280 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


would keep in the air through a long distance,” he 
said. 

“ Yes, but winds are not manufactured to exactly 
suit flying boats,” remarked Dannie. “ Winds in- 
crease and lull; that’s the way they are built, and 
they can’t help it. When this boat is up in the air 
and the wind increases she will rise higher, provid- 
ing the propelling force overcomes the increased 
resistance; when the wind lulls then the boat will 
come down and split her pretty stomach when she 
strikes. I begin to see things. The planes ought 
to be arranged so that they could be set at a steep or 
slight angle to meet the varying speed of the wind. 
Another thing, I believe there ought to be two rud- 
ders, one at each corner of the stern, so as to get 
power enough to keep the boat straight against the 
wind.” 

“ You are a croaker, but you are wise,” laughed 
Thad. “ I figured that the drive-pipes and the lift- 
ing-fans would keep her straight. Well, as soon as 
we get a stiffer breeze we will try it again.” 

“ All right,” said Dannie. <e Just the same, the 
flying act is not the thing I care for the most. The 
fact that we have a boat that is a world-beater as a 
boat is what tickles me. Even if we could make her 


281 


THE “ NEW MARVELLS ” FATE 

fly she would be of little use; she couldn’t carry a 
load, the conditions would always have to be just 
right, and she would always be in danger of wreck. 
What we have here is valuable as a boat, not as a 
bird , Professor Fanciful.” 

“ Go it, Mr. Practical! Still, Pd like to fly, 
and I hope it will soon blow great guns,” said 
Thad. 

“ Again I am wid yez,” quoth Dannie, smiling. 

They drove onward over the rolling swells at a 
fair rate of speed through several hours. Toward 
noon the wind died down and they drifted while 
eating lunch. In the east hung clouds like a moun- 
tain range of cotton, the sky seemed coated with a 
thin scum of steam, the sun shone dim and watery. 
The hills, stretching miles and miles along the sky 
to the southward, were heaped with coiling, masses 
of smoke. Even out on that splendid plain of cool 
water the air, when the wind fell off, seemed heavy 
and warm. About three o’clock in the afternoon 
the cloud ranges, driven into the southeast, began to 
rise. As the mighty waves of vapor came heaving 
upward Thad swung his cap and shouted: 

“ Hurrah ! she’s getting a move on ! There’s go- 
ing to be a big blow! Wild spirits of the air we 


282 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


now shall be ! Aspiring clodhopper, prepare to 
spread your wings ! ” 

“ Spread our fins would be more like it, if we had 
any,” laughed Dannie. “ A plump, fat, life-pre- 
server — one that would hold up about one hundred 
and forty-five pounds — would look nice to me.” 

“ Say, candidly, we ought to have brought a 
couple of life-preservers,” said Thad. 

“ A little more cork and a little less fried chicken, 
eh?” queried Dannie. “Well, never mind, wind- 
chasers are not supposed to be very practical. Say, 
Thad, speaking of fins, one of these days let’s patent 
some human fins — some sort of thin, light arrange- 
ments of rubber, celluloid, or aluminum, to fasten 
to the hands and feet and sides of the body to help 
people swim more easily.” 

“ Sure; it could be done without much trouble. 
The fins for the sides could be made to help hold 
the body up while in the water, the contrivances for 
the feet could be arranged so they would close as 
the swimmer’s feet were drawn up and open out 
against the water when the swimmer kicked; the 
same principle could be applied to the hands.” 

Dannie looked at the mass of clouds heaving up 
the sky. “We ought to have invented the ‘ Swim- 


THE “ NEW MARVELLS ” FATE 283 

mer’s Delight 9 before we became wind-hunters,” he 
laughed; “it’s about twenty miles to shore!” 

Thad began oiling the bearings and whistling. 
He put additional chemicals in the tanks. Dannie 
began whistling a tenor to Thad’s air. “ You’ve 
got the tune pitched ’most too high,” he remarked 
between breaths, looking up quietly at the oncoming 
wall of clouds. Thad started the tune on a lower 
key, but the keen notes trembled slightly. Around 
them the deep waters rocked, dark blue and laced 
here and there with thin scarfs of foam; the boat 
skated over the low, shining swells, seeming at times 
to scarcely touch them. The air through which 
they were running presently grew cool, brittle, 
clear, then it tilled with a faint haze and suddenly 
fell cold. The forefront of the vast range of clouds 
was almost above them. Suddenly the sun was 
blotted out, the atmosphere darkened to a russet 
dusk, and away ahead of them they saw a long billow 
of water rolling toward them. It looked to be eight 
or ten feet high and was capped with white. 

“Sav!” exclaimed Thad, “but that looks inter- 
esting! ” 

Dannie craned his neck. “ The wind behind that 
wave must be a fierce«proposition,” he said; “ it will 


284 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


scoop us up and set us down in Canada somewhere, 
I expect. Well, we’ve both had some experience in 
being ( scooped ’ — we’ve dwelt on the Camass Prai- 
rie, you know. Say, the wind will be slightly ahead 
of the wave of water; maybe the old lady-bird will 
jump up and let the wave of water go under 
us! It’s not a cyclone, anyhow; its a straight 
blow! ” 

“ Good for that! If the New Marvel ever flies 
she’ll fly in just about thirty seconds from now! 
Whew, how cold it is! ” Thad’s teeth shut down 
on the final word with a snap. He threw the 
release-lever into the last notch and jumped into the 
prow, taking a firm grip on the rails. Dannie took 
the helm in both hands and braced himself with his 
feet wide apart. In the rusty twilight their faces 
looked sallow and pale. 

Miles wide and roaring throughout its length the 
great wave came toward them ; humming and quiver- 
ing in every part, the fairy-like boat rushed at the 
gurgling monster. But, as Dannie had prophesied, 
the wave of wind outran the wave of water, and the 
next moment the New Marvel leaped upward and 
was apparently being torn in pieces. There was a 
sound of ripping canvas, the propeller and lifting- 


THE “ NEW MARVEL’S ” FATE 285 

fans, spinning with high velocity, seemed suddenly 
to scream, the motor and vent-pipes drummed 
loudly, the wild wind roared. 

For a moment the boys saw a distorted vision of 
rushing water seemingly a hundred feet beneath 
them, for the New Marvel ran up the whistling wind 
like a meteor, then the planes burst with the awful 
pressure. Like an arrow piercing an opposing wind, 
the boat rushed downward, pushed forward by the 
propeller and the vent-pipes and slightly sustained 
by the fans and fragments of the planes. She had 
swiftly climbed, as it might be, a hill of air; she now 
rushed downward as if sliding on a long slope of 
ether. 

Dizzying and frightful as was the situation, Thad 
sprang from the prow and threw himself into the 
stern in order that the boat might fall less rapidly. 
Dannie held the rudder straight and shut his teeth 
hard. Neither spoke; their lives hung as by a 
thread. 

Though the time seemed long, their passage 
downward consumed but a few moments. They saw 
a great waste of weltering water rise swiftly toward 
them, the wind hissed in their ears, the boat quiv- 
ered and rocked from side to side, then with a crash 


286 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


and gushing shock they struck the surface of the 
lake. 

Both the boys gasped and cried out involuntarily, 
for a shower of cold foam dashed over them and they 
were flung headlong. The next moment they had 
scrambled up. The boat was falling sidewise into 
a dark trough between two billows, water was gush- 
ing up through a rent in the hull forward. Thad 
nabbed the helm and stood ready to put her straight, 
Dannie tore off his blouse and began crushing it into 
the hole through which the water was spouting. 
The motor was beating like a fluttering heart, the 
propeller and fans were still whirling. 

“ Throw the lever back about three notches ! ” 
gasped Thad; “ she’ll tear herself to pieces in these 
waves ! ” 

Dannie hurriedly got to the lever on his hands 
and knees and put it half way back, then went at the 
rupture again. Twice the boat turned very nearly 
upside down before Thad got her nose to lifting 
straight over the big waves. Dannie wrenched some 
of the strips of canvas from the plane-frames and 
crammed the stuff into the rent. Still the water 
came in. The light hull was stove through a space 
of eight or ten feet forward, the tough rawhide lin- 


287 


THE “ HEW MARVEL’S ” FATE 

ing serving for the most part to keep the water from 
swamping them. To drive stuff into the rup- 
ture too tightly only widened the rent. Dannie 
calked the break as best he could, then with a dipper, 
which they had used to get drinking water from the 
lake, he fell to bailing for dear life. 

u You keep her straight and moving and I’ll keep 
her from sinking,” said Dannie. “ We ought to 
strike the shore in two or three hours.” 

“All right. When you get tired just sing out 
and I’ll swap jobs with you,” Thad replied. “ This 
seems to be our busy day.” 

“ Yes,” panted Dannie, “ it’s one of the days peo- 
ple read about.” 

“ I wonder if any one will ever read about 
it?” 

“ I’m not particular just this minute. If this 
rawhide bursts wide open and I fall through I’ll 
care still less.” 

Despite their perilous plight, Thad laughed aloud. 
“ You are It all right, Dannie.” 

Dannie, on his knees and working like a fiend, 
said nothing. 

“ I expected it would rain like the deluge,” said 
Thad presently, “ but it’s just a blow.” 


288 


TWO YOUNG INVENTOES 


“ Yep, just a big puff,” assented Dannie be- 
tween gasps. 

At tbe end of an hour the wind was still blowing 
hard, the water was becoming wreathed with clouds 
of smoke, the scene about them grew dim. “ Wind 
seems shifting into the south,” said Thad, after a 
time. “ Here, let me take the dipper, your mouth 
looks white. Steady now, Dannie, you’re about to 
faint! Kneel down to the helm, so; the water is com- 
ing in like fun! Hold her — get your breath q^uick 
and hold her straight ! If I don’t get to that dipper 
in about fourteen seconds we’ll go under! ” 

Dannie’s hands fumbled on the helm like wet 
rags, his face was frightfully white. “ It’s green 
and black all ’round me,” he whispered. “ Just a 
second — just a second! There, its coming clear — 
I’m here — I’ve got her solid now! Go for the 
water, Thad! ” 

Thad threw himself on his knees and began to 
battle with the inrushing water. At the end of half 
an hour he was reeling. Dannie came to his rescue 
and through nearly an hour bailed fiercely. Again 
Thad relieved him, and again Dannie was at the 
task, then suddenly in the smoke a long, dark mass 
loomed close before them, and the next moment the 


THE “ NEW MARYEL ? S ” FATE 289 

bottom of the boat grated and ripped over stones, 
and the New Marvel smote her prow into the dirt of 
the shore. Thad flung the lever over to zero and 
they tumbled out and drew the boat up a bit farther, 
then, breathing hard they turned and looked at each 
other. 

“ The wind-hunters have arrived!” said Thad, 
and suddenly dropped down on the flat of his back 
and shouted. 

Dannie looked slowly around in the smoke. u I 
hope the fool-killer isn’t about here anywhere! ” he 
said and sat down upon the ground and grinned. 


CHAPTER XY 


IN THE FOREST FIRE 

After a time the boys grew quiet; the serious 
side of the affair began to impress them. When they 
were lying flat upon the ground the smoke was not so 
very troublesome, when they stood erect it rendered 
breathing quite uncomfortable. As they lay rest- 
ing, Dannie presently said: 

“ Well, Thad have you had enough of flying? ” 

“ Yes, enough for the present. Say, it’s a pity we 
didn’t make the planes stronger ! ” 

“ If they had held firm where do you suppose we 
would have gone ? ” 

“ I don’t know where we would have come out, I 
am sure.” 

“ I do. We would have come out on the top floor 
of creation ! If the planes had held set at that angle 
and forced against that sort of wind, we would have 
gone on up until we hit the stars.” 

Thad laughed. “ Yes, the planes ought to have 
been set at about ten degrees pitch instead of 
290 


IN THE FOREST FIRE 


291 


twenty, as we had them. Well, flying, except for 
birds, is not a well-known business; people will have 
to learn.” 

Dannie grunted. His enthusiasm was not very 
great. “ Say, Fm hungry; let’s get supper. What 
time is it, Thad? ” 

“ Six o’clock and forty-two minutes by the regu- 
lator,” said Thad, peering at the face of his watch. 

“ With the smoke, and night coming on, in about 
thirty minutes it’s going to be as dark as a pile of 
black cats. What do you think we had best do ? ” 

“ Eat and stay here. We haven’t a scrap of any- 
thing to repair the boat with; if we strike out 
through the woods in search of the railroad, we’ll 
probably get lost, smothered, or burned up.” 

“ Exactly,” remarked Dannie, going to the boat’s 
locker and beginning to get out some food. “ It’s 
odd and lucky, but these jars of chemicals and the 
reserve battery did not break. If we had some 
means of mending the boat we’d be all right.” 

“ Yes, we will look at her in the morning,” said 
Thad. 

They built a fire on the lee-side of some rocks, 
and, after eating, tried to sleep. However, they had 
a nightmare sort of time of it, and were up at the 


292 TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 

first flush of dawn. The smoke was thicker than 
ever. The pine forest back of them looked dim, 
the lake was curtained from view. They pulled the 
boat out on the land as far as possible and examined 
her bottom. They agreed, seeing that they had al- 
most no means of repairing her at hand, that she 
was not to be considered. Eastward there was a 
bloody smear of color in the smoke. 

“ Looks like the woods were burning down to the 
water’s edge,” said Dannie; “ might be the sun com- 
ing up, though.” 

“ Eb; see that round, red sort of wheel off to the 
left? That must be the sun,” remarked Thad. 
“ The woods are on fire up the shore, there. I won- 
der what there is west and south of us? Looks as 
if we might get shut into a mighty hot trap.” 

“ I guess we’d best strike west along the shore,” 
said Dannie. 

Thad considered for a moment. “ No, I’ll tell you, 
let’s fill our pockets with grub and take our guns 
and strike inland. We ought to hit the railroad 
within a mile or two. A train beats walking. If 
we can get back to Duluth we can bring out some 
stuff and repair the boat. She’s in open ground and 
won’t burn or run away while we are gone. If we 


IN THE FOREST FIRE 293 

strike the fire we can come back to the shore, and, 
if the worst comes, we can take to the water.” 

“ And drown or smother with the smoke or 
starve,” said Dannie. “ All right, let’s be off; the 
quicker the more previous.” 

They shouldered their guns and struck into the 
gloomy woods. The land was rolling — hills covered 
with pines, hollows lined with spruce and birch, the 
flats a tangle of tamarack and brush. At the end 
of a hundred feet they began to ascend a long slope. 
When they had gained the top of the ridge they 
saw low hills before them, dim and blear with smoke. 
To the southward, apparently five or six miles away, 
a long billow of black smoke rolled upward, starred 
here and there with fire. Stretching east and west, 
it looked as if it might be twenty miles in length. 

“ Looks pretty bad,” said Dannie. 

“ Yes, but surely a forest fire in early July cannot 
be as dangerous as the same kind of thing would be 
in August or September,” Thad remarked. 

“ It hasn’t rained for three weeks and it’s pretty 
dry,” said Dannie. “ This country has never been 
burnt over and there’s lots of stuff on the ground. 
The fire may not run as fast as it would later in the 
season, but it will probably burn up or smother 


294 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


everything in this region that doesn’t use wings or 
legs to get away.” 

“ Whew, but my eyes ache! Wouldn’t a breath 
of clear air taste good! ” exclaimed Thad. “ Well, 
let’s push on over to the next hill and see what we 
find.” 

They passed down a slope and came into a 
thicket. It was a ghostly, dim place. Suddenly, 
not ten feet before them, a man sprang to his feet 
from the ground. He whirled around facing them, 
and lifting a revolver, fired. With the crash of 
the explosion Dannie felt something sting his cheek. 
Instantly he cocked his gun and leveled it at the 
man’s head. Thad, shocked out of his wits by the 
sudden attack, recoiled a pace or two, then threw 
his gun to his shoulder and covered the man’s breast. 

“ Throw that pistol down, Mr. Pinkson ! ” 
shouted Dannie. “ Now, put up your hands or 
you’ll lose your head and face! You brute, this is 
the second time you’ve tried to shoot me! I have a 
notion to kill you! ” He pushed the barrel of his 
gun almost into the man’s open mouth. 

“ Where did you come from? What are you 
doing here ? ” demanded Thad, white with excite- 
ment and rage. “ Out with it, or I’ll let the lead 


IN THE FOREST FIRE 


295 


into yon! Why are you trying to shoot people? 
What are you about, anyway? Answer! ” 

The two boys had their guns well-nigh against 
the man’s head; they were wildly excited. The 
man’s face looked long and sallow, his staring eyes 
were bloodshot, the fingers of his hands, held high 
above his head, worked nervously. 

“ You’ve got me! Don’t shoot! ” he stammered. 

“ I was lying down here — I fell asleep — I — I ” 

Dannie’s foot struck against something, and 
glancing down, he saw a canvas pouch, such as ex- 
press messengers carry at times suspended from 
their shoulders. “ Hold him with your gun, Thad, 
while I look at this ! 99 he said. 

Thad’s gray eyes burned along the gun barrel. 
“ I’ll hold him. If he moves, off goes his lid and 
his hair with it,” he said grimly. “ Say, you thiev- 
ing coward, twice now you’ve come near killing my 
chum! When you shoot at him you shoot at me! 
I believe I will let you have what is in the gun, any- 
how! ” 

“ Just hold him! ” spoke Dannie from the ground, 
where he was rummaging in the bag. “ Hello ! here 
are packages of money and registered letters! 
Looks like train robbery! ” 


296 


TWO YOUNG- INVENTORS 


Thad shoved the muzzle of his gun against the 
fellow’s forehead, literally pushing his head back 
with the cold steel. “ Where did you get it?” he 
shouted. “ Out with it ! Where did you get this 
money? ” In a sense Dannie had grown cool, but 
Thad was like a human wildcat. 

The man looked along the gun barrel at the fiery 
eyes and white face of the youth and fear set its 
cold talons deep in his heart. In the midst of his 
very next breath his life might be snuffed out. 
Brazen and sinful as he was, at the bottom of his 
heart he was an arrant coward. His jaw fell, he 
shook from head to foot. “ Don’t — don’t shoot 
me,” he pleaded, “ I’ll talk— I’ll tell!” 

Thad drew his gun back a few inches. “ Well, 
out with it! I won’t wait! ” he cried. 

“We — we robbed a train! There was three of 
us — I don’t know where the other two men are — I 
guess they got caught,” whined the man. “ I’ve 
been wandering in the burning woods for three days 
trying to get away--T’m worn out — I’m ’most 
starved. There’s a little station just around the 
bend. I was lying here waiting for night to come 
so I could jump a freight and get out of the country, 
but there don’t seem to be any trains, on account of 


IN THE FOREST FIRE 297 

the forest fire, I guess. Please put down the gun, 
won’t you? It’s terrible.” 

Thad backed away a couple of feet but held the 
man covered. “ Turn around and put your hands 
behind you,” he commanded. “ How, march 
straight to the track and then to the station. If you 
make a move to get away we’ll drop you.” 

Already Dannie had closed the pouch and had 
hung it about his shoulders. He picked up the 
man’s pistol and stuck it in his hip pocket. Lifting 
his gun, he covered the man’s back and said: 
“ Heady, Mr. Pinkson; kindly lead the proces- 
sion! ” 

Despite his anger and excitement Thad grinned. 
Almost with the first glance Dannie had recognized 
the man; later, as he looked along the barrel of his 
gun, he had gotten a very good view of the well-re- 
membered blue tooth and the white scar on the 
rascal’s neck. When they had proceeded some two 
hundred feet they suddenly came to a railroad track. 
Turning eastward, they arrived in a few minutes at a 
small station-house. Scattered about the station were 
eight or ten small houses, occupied by the section 
foreman and his men and other very humble people. 
An empty box-car and a plain flat-car stood on the 


298 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


side track, above the door of the station was the word 
“ Bandy.” There was one tiny store and a black- 
smith shop; the forest came fairly to the doors of 
the houses. 

Buried, as it was, in a haze of blue smoke, and 
with a vast fire flooding toward it from the south, 
this mimic town was rent with fear and excitement. 
The boys saw dim figures hurrying here and there. 
A runner had come in from the east, reporting that 
the forest was ablaze on both sides of the track in 
that direction, apparently, for miles; a man, who 
worked in a logging camp twelve miles west and 
whose family lived in Bandy, had got in at daylight, 
bringing the startling news that the whole country 
was ablaze down that way and burning far beyond; 
all trains had been taken off, the telegraph wires 
were down. The town of Bandy had, indeed, good 
cause for panic. 

However, in all that region no doubt the strang- 
est spectacle was that of two sturdy lads march- 
ing a crestfallen man down the platform with guns 
leveled at his back. There were five or six persons 
on the platform, among them a young fellow who 
served as agent and telegraph operator at the 
station. 


IN THE FOREST FIRE 299 

“ Halt, Mr. Blue-tooth ! ” sang out Dannie. The 
man stopped in his tracks. 

“Had a train hold-up around here anywhere?” 
asked Thad, lowering his gun half way. 

The men on the platform stood still, staring in 
amazement. “ Yes,” said the operator, coming for- 
ward, “ a train was held up and robbed over near 
Dudley Point night before last. Three men did the 
work, the authorities got two of them.” 

“ Well, here’s the third man,” said Dannie. 
“ Allow me to introduce Mr. Pinkson, alias Blue- 
tooth, or Long-neck; take your choice. Get some 
rope and tie his legs and arms; Pm tired of pointing 
this gun at him.” 

“ Yes, we have his part of the swag here in the 
bag. Tie him, then we will talk to you,” added 
Thad. 

Some of the men gaped, for the moment stupid 
with astonishment, but the operator and two others 
comprehended quickly and at the end of five minutes 
Mr. Pinkson was fastened beyond hope of escape. 
He protested bitterly and violently, but the hateful 
thing had to be done. 

“ There’s a reward offered for the capture of this 
man,” said the operator. “ The company tele- 


800 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


graphed along the line that they would give four 
hundred dollars for him. The express company 
have a reward out, too, but I don’t know how 
much.” 

“ This is the track of the Superior and Southern, 
isn’t it? ” asked Thad 
“ Yes, sir.” 

“ My brother is treasurer of the company, then. 
How soon can we get a train to Duluth? ” 

“ All trains have been stopped on account of the 
fire. We are about crazy here, wondering how to 
get the people out. We’ve waited too long, some- 
thing has got to be done at once.” 

Thad gave a long whistle. “ This is interesting, 
sure ! Why didn’t you skip out before this ? ” 

“ We didn’t know how bad it was. The trouble 
is that there are five sick people here, several little 
children, two old ladies, and a very old man. We 
don’t know what to do with them. There were 
three rowboats down at the shore, but their owners 
put some of their things aboard yesterday and pulled 
out. There’s not a thing here but a hand-car, and 
that won’t carry half the sick, much less the chil- 
dren and old folks. The fire will be in here probably 
by noon. The folks are going to lose their houses 


IN THE FOREST FIRE 


301 


and everything.” The operator spoke to the boys 
hurriedly and in excitement; a half dozen white- 
faced men and three women with babies in their 
arms were grouped about them. 

Thad whistled again. He looked at the robber, 
sitting on the edge of the platform with feet and 
hands tied. “ And we’ve got that precious rascal 
and the money on our hands, too ! ” he said. The air 
was heavy and stifling with smoke, the babies wailed, 
the lips of all were parched. 

Dannie looked at the box-car and the flat. He 
beckoned Thad aside. “ Let’s bring the New 
Marvel up here and spike her fast on the flat-car,” he 
said; “ there’s plenty here to carry her. Then, let’s 
hitch the hand-car on ahead. Four or five men on 
the hand-car and the push of the boat ought to move 
the two cars. If they will do it then we will get 
these people out of here.” 

Thad gazed at his comrade a moment with wide, 
admiring eyes, then grabbed him rapturously. 
“ Dannie — Dannie Dool! You’re a sun-burnt, 
freckle-faced angel ! ” he cried. “ You’re a genius 
and I salute you! ” 

He sprang away from the boy and toward the 
men, “ Who is the section boss, here? ” be shouted. 


302 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


“ I am,” said one of the number, a big, light- 
haired Swede. 

“Well, foreman, what is the nature of the track 
west of here for twenty or thirty miles? Is it 
mostly up hill or down hill? Speak quick! ” said 
Thad impetuously. 

“ Vaal, it been most down hill an’ some level to 
Blue Creek. That been eighteen mile. Then he 
turn down some an’ hit the shore putty quick, then 
he was mostly level,” said the man. 

“ All right,” said Thad. “ Now, I’m superin- 
tendent of about thirty miles of this road for the 
present, term of office anywhere from one minute 
to twenty-four hours, and by special appointment. 
The assistant superintendent, Mr. Dannie Dool, here, 
and myself, are going to get these sick people and 
children and aged folks, and this monkey with the 
rope around his legs, out of this hole at once. You 
healthy chaps can lend a hand. Mr. Dool, you and 
the section boss put the hand-car in front of the 
box-car; get some scantling, fence-boards, poles, any- 
thing firm and stiff, spike the timber to the floor of 
the hand-car and then to the bottom of the box-car; 
make it firm. Some one take my gun and watch 
the monkey and the money. Now, I want about 


IN THE FOREST FIRE 


303 


five stout fellows to fly with me down to the lake 
and bring up our boat; it’s stove, but it’s got good 
propellers. We will spike her to the top of the 
flat-car and push out of here. Don’t gape or ask 
questions ! Act ! ” 

A half dozen men started on a run for the shore 
with Thad among them. “ There’s a road down this 
way,” shouted one of the men who was in the lead. 
They but dimly comprehended the scheme of rescue, 
hut a way out of their peril had been suggested by 
two young fellows who clearly were resourceful and 
not afraid to do things; besides, the tall hoy, who 
* had declared himself in command, was a brother of 
the treasurer of the road. Maybe he knew what he 
was talking about. 

Dannie worked rapidly in Thad’s absence. The 
hand-car was spiked on ahead of the box-car, the 
sick, and the old people and the women and children 
were gotten into the box-car. 

“ Take only your money and diamonds and some 
bed-clothes,” said Dannie. “ If we find we can’t 
move the train we will unload the diamonds ! ” The 
Swedish section foreman and the young operator 
laughed. 

“We’d better fasten the hold-up man in one 


304 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


corner of the box-car,” added Dannie, “ we men- 
folks are going to be busy trying to get this train 
through and must not be bothered with the 
thief.” 

“ All right,” said the operator, “ we’ll spike his 
ropes fast to the inside of the car and give old man 
Bobbs a shotgun. Bobbs is eighty-eight and a great 
hand to take care of babies. With a shotgun I 
think he can take care of the monkey, as your chum 
called him.” 

With the passing of an hour the men arrived from 
the shore, red-faced and panting, with the New 
Marvel on their shoulders. The light craft was 
placed upon the flat-car and spiked solidly to the 
floor. Six men mounted the hand-car and seized the 
handlebars, Thad and Dannie climbed into the boat 
and set the lifting-fans to drive their currents rear- 
ward, then charged the tanks with fresh chemicals 
and hooked on a couple of fresh battery cells, and 
were ready. 

Smoke was rolling through the woods and across 
the tiny town, less than a mile to the southward 
flames were roaring and crackling, and trees, eaten 
away, were crashing to the earth. Death in its 
most appalling form was drawing near. 


IN THE FOREST FIRE 305 

u If we can’t move these cars we shall certainly 
have a fine mess on onr hands,” said Dannie. 

“ In that case we will have to abandon the thing 
and carry the sick folks down to the lake, then some 
of them will probably die, and maybe most of us will 
be smothered before the fire is over,” replied Thad. 
“ If we can get this thing started and don’t hit the 
fire too hard at any point, I believe we will get the 
people to safe ground.” 

There were thirty-two persons present. Apart 
from Dannie and Thad and the six men on the hand- 
car, there were five other able-bodied fellows. 
These latter set their shoulders against the flat-car 
and pushed as insane men might. Thad shouted, 
“ Ready, let her go,” and put the releasing-lever 
of the New Marvel over. The men on the hand- 
car threw their combined strength into the wheels, 
the New Marvel smote her blades against the air, 
the vent-pipes pulsed, and the heavy cars creaked 
and moved slowly out through the switch and down 
the track. The men began to yell, Thad and Dan- 
nie swung their caps and screeched. When the cars 
were fairly under way the men who were pushing 
clambered aboard the flat-car and onward the little 
procession went. 


306 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


Surely it was the strangest and most absurd train 
that ever rolled along the steel of any track! A 
hand-car fastened in ahead of a box-car with scant- 
ling and nails, and coaxed to its highest pulling 
capacity by six perspiring men; a heavy box-car with 
frightened women and children sitting on its floor, 
with five sick people lying on mattresses among 
them, and with a robber tied in a corner, guarded 
by a very old man with a shotgun; back of that a 
flat-car with five panting men sprawling upon it, and 
in a boat two young fellows, one with several thou- 
sand dollars in a pouch hung about his shoulders! 
The oddest thing, perhaps, of all was the boat, away 
from its natural element and doing its best at push- 
ing freight-cars on dry land! Despite the dangers 
of the immediate situation and the unknown perils 
toward which they were rushing, Thad and Dannie 
smiled. 

As the Swedish foreman had said, a considerable 
portion of the way for the first eighteen miles was 
down grade. At points the track was level and 
again slightly up grade, but mainly the fall was 
downward to Blue Creek; after that the problem 
was more difficult. At the end of three miles they 
were going fast; onward they swept, tearing through 



The oddest thing was the boat . . . doing its best at 
PUSHING FREIGHT-CARS ON DRY LAND ! — Page 306. 

t 























IN THE FOREST FIRE 


307 


clouds of smoke, swaying and roaring around the 
curves, a glimmer of dim woods and rocks and hills 
flying rearward. But few words were spoken; in 
the box-car the sick moaned, some of the children 
cried, the hoary Mr. Bobbs peered over his glasses 
sourly at the thief. 

At the end of five miles they whirled into fire. 
The forest was burning on each side of the track. 
The heat and the smoke were terrible. Over the 
little train burst blazing branches, flaming leaves 
and twigs, hot ashes and stinging sparks. In the 
box-car there was frightened screaming, but the men 
on the hand-car pulled their hats down over their 
eyes, bent their heads, and stuck to their task. The 
men lying upon the flat-car turned upon their faces, 
Dannie and Thad dropped in the bottom of the boat 
and gasped. 

In two or three minutes the swaying cars were 
beyond the flames, yet rushing through smoke that 
was thick and stifling. Hands were beating out fire 
from ignited clothing, eyes were tear-wet and half 
blind from the heat and smarting smoke. From 
that time on no one saw anything clearly. Twice the 
cars almost stopped, but the motor of the New 
Marvel drummed, the propellers hummed, the blis- 


308 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


tered heroes on the hand-car pumped fiercely, and 
they rolled over the rising grades and rushed on- 
ward. 

Again they were flying through a region beset 
with flames, again they were fighting for breath, 
and again they were in more open ground. Pres- 
ently they whirled by a tiny station. Near it were 
two small houses, both were on fire, no human being 
was visible. Then they were rushing through a low 
region that was horrible with smoke, heavy, suffocat- 
ing, then the cars roared across an iron bridge, and 
presently the vague, wavering waste of the lake 
grew out of the gloom upon the right and they began 
to breathe more freely. 

Five minutes later they struck air that was com- 
paratively clear, the track was level, the motion of 
the cars fell slow and labored. At a station six 
miles west of Blue Creek, the Swedish foreman put 
his foot on the hand-car brake, Thad twisted the 
brake on the flat-car, and the odd little train came to 
a standstill. The wild ride was ended, the memor- 
able journey was finished. 

On the platform of the hand-car two men lay in- 
sensible, on the flat-car three were nearly helpless, 
of burns and blisters there were many. Thad and 


IN THE FOKEST FIRE 


309 


Dannie jumped to the ground ; their eyelashes curled 
tightly, their hair was short and decidedly curly. 
They ran to the lake, drank eagerly, and bathed 
their hot faces. "Was there ever before such sweet 
water anywhere! 

“ Well, we are out of it! ” said Dannie. 

“ If this railroad is any good we are in it ! ” said 
Thad. 

They looked at each other and laughed with a 
keener relish than at any time since they were 
friends. 

“ Now,” said Dannie, “ we must look after these 
people; some of them are in pretty bad shape. ITl 
get a pail at the station and bring them water. You 
better telegraph your brother.” 

“ All right,” replied Thad, “ make the folks as 
comfortable as you can. Til wire for help.” 

A startling and puzzling message went to head- 
quarters from the station presently. It was ad- 
dressed to Jasper Mandon and signed by Thad. It 
read: 

“ As superintendent of the Tire Division, to- 
gether with the assistant superintendent, Daniel 
Dool, I have the honor to report that we have a 
train robber and the inhabitants of Bandy here at 


310 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


Piker Station on a special train, made up of a hand- 
car, a box-car, a flat-car, and a boat. The said in- 
habitants and robber are somewhat scorched but all 
right. Favor us at once with an engine, two 
coaches, a sheriff, and a doctor. All are anxious to 
get into Duluth for supper. The boat flew! ” 

Mandon, when he read this extraordinary report, 
called the general superintendent and they hurried 
into the train dispatcher’s room. The dispatcher 
talked with the operator at Piker Station, and pres- 
ently matters became clear. A train was sent out 
and the “ Boat Special,” as it was afterward called, 
was brought into the city. 

Just what and how much was said, both by mouth 
and by the press, relative to this exploit, would be 
hard to state and difficult to believe. The noise of 
it brought Mr. Young from St. Paul; it thrilled 
Mr. Norton; Mr. Howland smiled over it in New 
York, and out at the TIarp homestead it awakened 
both laughter and tears. 

As for Dannie and Thad, some highly interesting 
things afterwards befell them, but the present nar- 
rative closes here. More than anything else this has 
been a history of the beginning of their friendship, 
a friendship which bids fair to continue through, 


IN THE FOREST FIRE 


311 


their lives. An even thousand dollars was presented 
to them by the Express Company and the Superior 
and Southern for the capture of the notorious Mr. 
Pinkson, but that was the least of their rewards, 
for to-day each holds an enviable position in the 
engineering department of the Superior and South- 
ern, where their pluck and inventive talent are pro- 
ducing valuable results. 

Each vacation during their three years’ course at 
the great technical school in Chicago found them at 
the Harp homestead on Camass Prairie, where they 
again looked upon the mighty muskallonge, now in 
a glass case upon the east wall of Aunt Sarah’s 
spacious dining room, and where the story of its 
capture and influence on their lives is often told to 
visitors by Uncle Nathan. More than once Dannie 
and Thad have fished in Lake Marvel, but, though 
they have caught some fine ones, a second “ king 
musky ” has not yet appeared. The squawking 
scarecrow, the sailing wagon, and the old Marvel 
have long since fallen into ruin; like many boyhood 
attempts these were simply steps in the development 
of natural talents. 

As for the New Marvel , there is a certain wise 
secrecy relative to her fate, for one of these days, 


312 


TWO YOUNG INVENTORS 


when they have money enough and the time is ripe, 
Thad and Dannie purpose putting a line of swift 
mail and express boats upon the Great Lakes, em- 
bodying the most practical ideas worked out in the 
famous New Marvel. However, they do not count 
on constructing boats that will fly; they have wisely 
decided that this delightful privilege properly be- 
longs to the birds. 


THE END 


Young Heroes of Wire and Rail 

By ALVAH MILTON KERR 
Illustrated by H. C. EDWARDS, J. C. LEYENDECKER, and others 


12 mo Cloth Price $1.25 


This is a book of wonderfully vivid stories of 
railroad life, portraying the heroism of trainmen, 
telegraph operators, and despatchers, each story 
a complete drama in itself, with thrilling climax, 
and yet too truthful to be classed as sensational. 
It is by Alvah Milton Kerr, formerly a train- 
despatcher of long experience, and now a justly 
noted writer of railroad stories, who has brought 
together from many sources the most striking 
acts of heroism performed during the last quar- 
ter of a century of railroad activity, and has cast 
them in stories of singularly intense interest. 

Most of these stories first appeared in 
“ McClure’s Magazine,” “ The Youth’s Com- 
panion,” “ Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post ” 
and “ Success ; ” w r hich fact is a very strong guarantee of merit. No 
one who begins reading these stories in this finely printed, illustrated, 
and bound book will be likely to allow anything to interfere w r ith their 
completion. 

“ An ideal book for a young boy is ‘ Young Heroes of Wire and Rail,’ and, 
indeed, the older folks who begin to read will continue to the end.” — Episcopal 
Recorder , Philadelphia. 

“ The tone of the work is healthful and inspiring.” — Boston Herald. 

u They teach more bravery, unselfishness and forethought in a page than can 
be imparted in an hour of ‘ethical’ instruction in school.” — New York Times. 

11 The tone of the stories is fine, showing unexpected bravery and courage in 
many of the characters.” — Delineator , New York. 

u A book that not only yields entertainment and healthy excitement, but 
reveals some of the possibilities always confronting railroad workers and train 
despatchers.” — Christian Register , Boston. 

u They are calculated to inspire boys to become manly, and incidentally they 
contain considerable valuable information.” — Newark News. 



For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers. 


LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston 


By A. T. DUDLEY 


Illustrated by Charles Copeland. Cloth. Price per vol., $1.23 


FIRST VOLUME 

FOLLOWING THE BALL 

Here is an up-to-date story presenting 
American boarding-school life and modern 
athletics. The scene will readily be recog- 
nized as at Exeter. Of course football is 
an important feature, and in tracing the 
developmen t of the hero from a green player 
to an expert it might serve as a guide. 
Other branches of athletics are also finely 
dealt with. But it is far more than a foot- 
ball book. It is a story of character forma- 
tion told in a most wholesome and manly 
way. In this development athletics play 
an important part, to be sure, but are only 
one feature in carrying the hero, “ Dick 
Melvin,” on to a worthy manhood. 

“ A seasonable school and football story, by a writer who knows the game 
and knows boys as well. It is of the ‘ Tom Brown’ type, an uplifting as well 
as a lively story.”— Advance, Chicago, 111. 

SECOND VOLUME 

MAKING THE NINE 

The cordial reception of the great foot- 
ball story, “ Following the Ball,” which had 
the distinction of so fine a spirit in its de- 
velopment of the hero’s school life that not 
only the boys but their elders were enthusi- 
astic over it, has led to this second book, in 
which baseball is sufficiently prominent to 
suggest the title. It is a pleasure for a pub- 
lisher to present such a book as this, in 
every way worthy to continue the success 
of the previous volume. The special points 
of excellence are that the story is lively and 
worth telling, and the life presented is that 
of a real school, interesting, diversified, and 
full of striking incidents, while the char- 
acters are true and consistent types of American boyhood and 
youth. The athletics are technically correct, abounding in 
helpful suggestions, soundly and wisely given, and the moral 
tone is high and set by action rather than preaching. 




LEE SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston 



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